The construction industry added 25,000 jobs in April, ending the month with 259,000 openings, up 52,000 from last year, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
“This release of April data suggests that contractors are increasingly struggling to fill open positions,” ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu said. “Fewer construction workers were laid off in April than in any month since the first half of 2022, and industrywide job openings, while still relatively low by historical standards, are up more than 25% over the past year.”
Basu chalks up the current construction job market to a shrinking number of undocumented workers and national shortages of certain tradespeople. “While contractors remain broadly optimistic about increasing their staffing levels over the next six months, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, labor availability is unlikely to improve over the short term,” he added.
Read the full report here.
