The construction industry had 245,000 job openings on the last day of May, an increase of 3,000 from April to May but a decrease of 130,000 from May 2024, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
“Industrywide labor demand continued to be subdued in May,” Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu said in a statement. “The year-to-date construction hiring rate is lower than in any year since the start of the data series in 2000. Job openings are down about 35% year over year, and layoffs remain historically uncommon. Of course, it’s unclear how immigration policy uncertainty is affecting these data. To the extent that a decline in the hiring of undocumented workers is not reflected, the industry could be significantly weaker than it appears.”
Read the full report here.