Construction employment grew in 223 of 358 metro areas year-over-year in August, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America.
Construction employment fell in 79 metro areas and remained unchanged in 56 metro areas.
“Although construction employment is growing in most locations, contractors everywhere report they are having trouble filling positions,” stated Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist. “Many more metro areas would have shown gains if there were enough qualified workers to fill the openings.”
The largest increase in construction jobs came in the Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas, metro, with 15,100 jobs added, followed by New York City with 11,000 jobs and Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Ore.-Wash., with 9,200 jobs.
The largest declines in construction employment were registered in Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas (-6,800 jobs), Nassau County-Suffolk County, N.Y. (-5,200 jobs) and Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla. (-4,400 jobs).
The full AGC report can be found here.
