The Quikrete Industry Dashboard

Unemployment rose to 3.8% in August compared to 3.5% in July in the latest Quikrete Industry Dashboard, following the latest Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Total non-farm payroll increased by 187,000 in August with construction adding 22,000 jobs for the month, above the average monthly construction jobs gain of 17,000 for the past 12 months. 

Within the construction industry, employment continued to trend up over the month with specialty trade contractor hiring increasing by 11,000.

Transportation and warehousing saw notable declines with a loss of 34,000 jobs. A massive dropoff in trucking employment was largely due to Yellow Corp. going out of business.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index declined in August to 106.1 from a downwardly revised 114.0 in July. The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—fell to 144.8 from 153

“Consumer confidence fell in August 2023, erasing back-to-back increases in June and July,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board. “August’s disappointing headline number reflected dips in both the current conditions and expectations indexes. Write-in responses showed that consumers were once again preoccupied with rising prices in general, and for groceries and gasoline in particular.”

At the pumps, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas ticked up to $3.83 per gallon as of Aug. 31, compared to an average price of $3.75 in the prior month, according to the Automobile Association of America (AAA).