U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Reports Construction Sector Hiring Increased in March

A deeper dive into the recent (5-11-21) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) looking specifically at the construction sector reveals that the housing market remains robust, and as a result additional labor is required. Overall, hiring in the construction sector increased in March, rising to a 6% 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 down in March to a 2% rate, consistent with the demand for more workers. 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 increased to 4.4% in March, with 344,000 open positions in the sector. This is higher than the 228,000 count recorded a year ago.