Open Construction Jobs Fall 40% from Year Ago

Open construction jobs decreased by 164,000, or about 40%, year over year in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday. Compared to September, the number of open jobs fell by 9,000, or about 3.5%.

This decline in October followed a drop of 70,000 open jobs from August to September. The BLS report tracks the number of open positions for which employers are actively hiring as of the last day of the month.

“While JOLTS data can be volatile from month to month, especially at the industry level, the decline in unfilled construction positions is undeniable over the past few quarters,” Anirban Basu, chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors, said in a news release. “On average, just 3.4% of industrywide positions were open over the past six months, the lowest rate since 2020.”

Economists point to several factors that may have contributed to the ongoing declines in open positions. “There’s reason to suspect that election uncertainty, combined with the expectation that borrowing costs will decline over the next several quarters, delayed staffing decisions over the past few months,” Basu said.

He also noted that hiring in October reached its lowest level since 2020, even as contractors laid off fewer workers than in any other month on record. Construction employers laid off 97,000 workers in October, a 43% drop from the previous month and a 42% year-over-year decrease. Contractors hired 293,000 workers in October, a 12.5% decline from September and 23% lower than the previous year.

Despite these trends, Basu highlighted that industrywide employment growth has outperformed the broader economy in recent quarters. ABC membership surveys indicate that contractors anticipate increasing staffing in the next six months, suggesting “it appears that construction job openings will rise through the early months of 2025.”

Economists have largely attributed the drop in open positions to the residential sector, which has experienced a slowdown in recent months. BLS does not distinguish between residential and nonresidential openings.

According to BLS data, nonresidential firms saw a 3.7% increase in employment in October compared to the same month last year, said Macrina Wilkins, senior research analyst for the Associated General Contractors of America. This growth rate was nearly three times higher than that of residential firms. Wilkins also noted that nonresidential employment has grown steadily at a rate of 3.5% to 4% over the past two years, while residential employment has slowed.

“These trends suggest that the recent decline in job openings is primarily concentrated in the residential construction sector,” Wilkins told Construction Dive.

Read full story on Construction Dive