Florida Construction News staff writer
The U.S. construction sector added 15,000 jobs in June as rising wages helped attract workers despite economic uncertainty, according to a new analysis of federal data released Monday by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).
Industry employment totaled 8.32 million on a seasonally adjusted basis, up 121,000 jobs—or 1.5 percent—over the past 12 months, outpacing the 1.1 percent growth rate of total nonfarm employment nationwide.
“Today’s construction employment numbers show firms are eager to find and hire workers even amid broader market uncertainty,” said Macrina Wilkins, senior research analyst with the association. “Hiring is holding up better than expected, especially with upward revisions to prior months’ data, as persistent labor shortages prompt firms to hire when they can.”
Nonresidential construction led job gains last month, adding 9,200 positions, including 12,400 among nonresidential specialty trade contractors. Those gains were offset by losses of 400 jobs in nonresidential building construction and 2,800 in heavy and civil engineering.
Residential construction firms added a net 5,500 positions in June, driven by an increase of 6,000 jobs among residential specialty trade contractors. That gain was slightly offset by a loss of 500 jobs among homebuilders and other residential building construction firms.
Wages also continued to climb. Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees in construction reached $37.20 in June, a 4.6 percent increase from the same time last year. That compares with a 3.9 percent rise for similar workers across the private sector.
The unemployment rate for workers with recent construction experience dropped to 3.4 percent—near historic lows and significantly below the overall national jobless rate of 4.4 percent.
Despite the demand for labor, hiring remains constrained by a lack of qualified workers. A separate Bureau of Labor Statistics report found 273,000 job openings in construction at the end of May, down 33 percent from a year earlier. Hiring was down 3.9 percent year over year, while layoffs remained low.
“The data suggest contractors are retaining existing workers and would have added more if qualified candidates had been available,” the association noted.
Industry leaders are closely watching a tax bill under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives, which they say could provide some relief.
“If passed, the bill would prevent a massive tax increase on construction firms and help ease some of the uncertainty impacting the market,” said Jeffrey D. Shoaf, the association’s chief executive officer.
The measure also includes a provision to expand Pell Grant eligibility to short-term credentialing programs, which Shoaf said could help build the construction workforce pipeline.
“Anything that provides more certainty for the economy should help bring more private sector developers off the bench and boost demand for construction,” he said.View the construction employment data.
