JOLTS Reports Construction Job Openings Rate Increases in January

An in depth look at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for January 2021, with analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reveals that job openings in construction increased in January to their highest level since the fall of 2019. Construction hiring started 2021 strong. The job openings rate in construction increased in January to 4%, with 309,000 open positions in the sector. This is higher than the 296,000 count recorded a year ago and the highest since October 2019 (324,000). Overall, hiring in the construction sector dipped in January, falling to a 4.9% rate. The peak rate of hiring in 2020 occurred in May (10.3%) as a rebound took hold in home building and remodeling. Construction sector layoffs ticked up in January to a 2.7% rate. In April, the layoff rate was 10.9%, after a loss of 8.3% in March. Since that time however, the sector layoff rate has been below 3%.