Construction Employment Reaches 10-Year High

Last week, the Associated General Contractors of America published an article highlighting the boost in construction related employment but warned against the threats of future growth.

Per the article, posted here, construction employment has reached a 10-year high with the industry adding 13,000 jobs in June alone. 282,000 jobs have been added for the year thus far. The hourly earnings of an employee in the industry top the private sector by 10.1%.  While the tax and regulatory reform and recent increases in infrastructure investments have helped boost employment, there are some threats to future growth. These threats include trade fights and labor shortages.

The construction employment totaled 7,222,000 last month. This is the highest level since May of 2008. It’s a gain of 4.1% over the past year.

Another positive from the article? The unemployment rate has remained virtually the same in 2016, 2017, and 2018: signalling the industry is operating at (essentially) full employment.

While the article discusses residential employment, it was noted that employment in  building, specialty trades, and heavy and civil engineering construction, grew by 8,600 jobs in June and by 147,900 during the past year, a 3.5 percent increase. This does not come as a surprise to us as we’ve seen growth in our own office.

The reason for the hires? The article states this:

“Association officials observed that construction employers appear more eager to hire amid lower taxes and increased efforts to reduce needless or ineffective regulatory burdens. They added that recent increased infrastructure investments at the federal and state level are also helping boost construction employment. But they cautioned that workforce shortages, tariffs and a looming trade war could undermine future construction employment gains.”

You can read the full article here.

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