The construction industry added 15,000 jobs in April to total 7.9 million, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. The construction industry’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.1%, the lowest rate for April in 23 years of historical data.
“Contractors can’t find, reach, hire and train workers fast enough to keep pace with demand,” AGC CEO Stephen E. Sandherr said in a statement. “The pool of qualified, available labor is the smallest the industry has ever seen for the month of April.”
Average hourly pay for construction workers surged 6.7% year-over-year to $33.94. The number of job openings in construction totalled 355,000, down slightly from March’s all-time-high of 359,000 construction job openings.
Of the 15,000 workers hired in April, 14,200 of them were in the residential building and specialty trade sectors.
The full AGC report can be found here.
