Construction added 10,000 jobs in November

Construction added roughly 10,000 jobs last month and experts said industry jobs were outpacing the general economy.

That’s from an analysis by the Associated Builders and Contractors using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Industry employment has risen by 211,000 jobs compared to last year, an increase of 2.6%, officials added.

Over the last 12 months, construction was one of the industries with high job growth nationally, following government, hospitality, private education and healthcare jobs, BLS data showed.

In Wisconsin, construction employment was 8.3% higher in 2023 than in 2019, making a bounce back after the pandemic, a Wisconsin Policy Forum report showed.

Nonresidential construction added 6,800 positions with growth in two of three subcategories, the analysis showed. Specialty trades added 7,000 positions and heavy and civil engineering added 1,500 jobs. Nonresidential building lost 1,700 jobs last month.

The construction unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the analysis showed. Across all industries, unemployment was up 4.2% from 4.1% in October.

“While the construction industry added just 10,000 jobs in November, industrywide employment growth has still significantly outpaced the broader economy over the past year,” said Anirban Basu, the chief economist of ABC, in a statement.

Basu said the latest unemployment and payroll numbers might be a sign the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again.

“The combination of relatively cool payroll employment growth over the past three months, combined with a slight uptick in the unemployment rate, increases the odds that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again at their December meeting, though the greater determinant will be the Consumer Price Index data released next week,” Basu said.

“For the construction industry, there is plenty of reason for optimism, given the prospect of lower interest rates and that contractors broadly expect their sales to increase over the next six months, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index,” he added.

ABC report shows 249,000 job openings in construction

There were 249,000 job openings in construction on the last day of October, an analysis from ABC showed. The analysis, shared Dec. 3, used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings ang Labor Turnover Survey.

“Construction industry job openings fell again in October and are down nearly 40% over the past year,” Basu said. “While JOLTS data can be volatile from month to month, especially at the industry level, the decline in unfilled construction positions is undeniable over the past few quarters. On average, just 3.4% of industrywide positions were open over the past six months, the lowest rate since 2020,” he added.

It’s likely that factors such as uncertainty over the U.S. election paused staffing decisions for the last few months, Basu said. But with construction jobs outpacing the economy and contractors looking to hire, “it appears that construction job openings will rise through the early months of 2025,” he added.