The construction industry lost 11,000 jobs in February, according to Associated Builders and Contractors’ analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Though the industry’s employment grew by 42,000 jobs year over year, a 0.5% increase from February 2025, the conflict in Iran is casting a shadow over the next few months, ABC reported. “With the conflict in Iran adding to trade policy-related uncertainty and crude oil prices well above $80 per barrel, the industry’s outlook remains downbeat through the first few months of 2026,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu.
Residential construction jobs reported a 7,100 monthly decrease, with residential building jobs increasing by 2,400 but residential specialty trade jobs taking a 9,500 hit. Year over year, residential construction jobs have declined by 1.4%.
The overall construction unemployment rate decreased from January’s 7.1% to February’s 6.9%. Unemployment across all private industries increased 0.1 percentage point month over month from 4.3% to 4.4%. Year over year, overall unemployment grew by 0.2 percentage points, from 4.2% to 4.4%.
“Construction employment shrank again in February and has now declined in 8 of the past 11 months,” said Basu. “Both the residential and nonresidential segments lost jobs for the month, adding to a recent string of downbeat industry data releases; construction spending has been in decline for several quarters, and ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator fell to a four-year low in January.”
Read the full report here.
