The count of unfilled jobs in the US construction sector declined in February, but remains higher than a year ago.
According to the latest BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and NAHB analysis, the number of open construction sector jobs came in at 196,000 in February. The post-recession high count of open, unfilled construction jobs was 255,000 in July of last year. The number of open construction sector jobs was 169,000 a year ago.
The new NAHB estimates show that the average congressional district has more than 8,800 residents working in residential construction but that number is often significantly higher. In Montana’s single Congressional district, close to 20,600 residents are in home building. The latest estimates of home building employment, including self-employed workers, by congressional district highlight the importance of home building to voting constituency residing in the district.
US Construction Employment
The overall trend for open construction jobs in the US has been increasing since the end of the Great Recession, said the US Census in it’s latest quarterly release. This is consistent with survey data indicating that access to labor remains a top business challenge for builders.
The construction sector hiring rate, as measured on a twelve-month moving average basis, held steady at 5.2% in February. The twelve-month moving average for layoffs is falling again, declining to 2.6%. The quits rate increased to 2.4% in January.
NAHB expects construction sector net hiring to continue in 2018 as the single-family construction market expands. However, as labor remains a top cited challenge to expansion, builders will increasingly explore options to find ways to build more with less.
The NAHB residential construction employment estimates include self-employed workers. Counting self-employed is particularly important in the home building industry since they traditionally make up a larger share of the labor force. According to the 2016 ACS, over 23% of construction workers are self-employed, while an economy-wide average does not reach 10% of the employed labor force.