NAHB: Construction hiring gains ground

Hiring in the construction industry has been surging after substantial layoffs in March and April caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

Analysis of the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shows 679,000 workers hired in May and 498,000 jobs in June.

About 423,000 construction workers were hired in June 2019.

The NAHB also said that the construction hiring rate [the number of hires (679,000) divided by total employment and sector job openings] increased to 9.7%, after a rate of just  3.7% in April.

This was the strongest rate of hiring in the history of the JOLTS data, the association said. In June, the rate was 6.9%, slower than May but still well above average.

The pace of rehiring, combined with weakness in the non-residential sector, reduced the open jobs rate to just 3.3% in June, with a  total of 245,000 open construction sector jobs. 

In June 2019, the open job count was 325,000. 

But the NAHB reports that builders continue to face limited access to skilled construction workers with home construction and remodeling jobs in demand.

The full BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey is available here.