Construction employment totaled 6.91 million in September, the largest amount since October 2008 and an increase of 2.7 percent compared with construction employment of 6.72 million in September 2016, according to The Associated General Contractors of America.
Residential construction added 80,600 jobs between September 2016 and 2017, a 3.1 percent increase. Nonresidential construction added 103,300 jobs, an increase of 2.5 percent.
"Construction firms added employees over the past year at a much higher rate than the public and private sectors as a whole, and contractors have been boosting pay to attract more workers," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist, in a statement. "But with unemployment so low overall and in construction, many contractors are having trouble filling a variety of hourly craft and salaried openings."
