Despite a Hot Housing Market Job Openings in the Construction Sector Decline in May

A deeper dive into the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) May Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), with a look specifically on the construction sector, reveals that the number of open construction jobs decline in May to 299,000 unfiled positions. Overall, hiring in the construction sector remained strong in May, ticking down to a 4.2% rate. The post-virus peak rate of hiring occurred in May 2020 (10.3%) as a rebound took hold in home building and remodeling. Hiring has generally slowed since that time, with the exception of a weather-related rebound in March 2021. Construction sector layoffs remained steady in May at a 2.1% rate. In April 2020, the layoff rate was 10.9%. Since that time however, the sector layoff rate has been below 3%, with the exception of February 2021 due to weather effects. The job openings rate in construction declined to 3.9% in May, with 299,000 open positions in the sector. This is slightly higher than the 281,000 count recorded a year ago.