Average hourly earnings for construction workers increased 6.2% year-over-year in January to $33.38, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America.
Comparatively, the average pay for all private sector production workers increased 5.1% year-over-year.
“Workers in construction now earn an average of 18.1% more per hour than in the private sector as a whole,” AGC said in a statement.
“Construction employment and pay gains outpaced the economy as a whole in the past year, showing that demand for projects remains strong,” stated Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist. “In fact, most contractors would like to hire even more workers and are raising pay in an effort to attract them.”
The construction industry totaled a record 7.9 million workers in January, a 3.9% increase compared with January 2022. Construction job openings at the end of 2022 also reached 359,000, the highest December total in 23 years of data.
