The industry saw 25,000 more jobs in May, leading unemployment to fall to the second lowest rate for the month. Most of these jobs derived from nonresidential construction.
“Demand for construction workers remains strong, outside of homebuilding,” said Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist. “Contractors continue to report their primary challenge is finding qualified workers, not finding projects or most materials.”
Construction employment has added 192,000 jobs over the last 12 months, increasing by over 2%. Additionally, residential and specialty trade contractor employment grew by 2,500 jobs, or 0.1%.
From May 2022 to May 2023, the unemployment rate dropped from 3.8% to 3.5%, which is the second lowest percentage for May in the 23 years since the data has been collected. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 460,000 construction new hires in April, a 3% increase from last year.
Wages increased for craft workers, office works and others in production or nonsupervisory roles. The average hourly pay rate saw a 6% increase. The AGC reports that construction companies paid a wage “premium” of about 19% to employees compared to the average hourly earnings of private sector employees.
Although numbers are trending up, AGC officials say that the federal government has been one of the biggest challenges in growing the construction industry workforce because of the way it invests in higher education. The association cites that the government spends $5 encouraging students to pursue college for every dollar it invests in career and technical education.
