Quikrete Industry Dashboard - (Week 23, 2025)
The Week 23, 2025 edition of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard opens with new unemployment data from the month of May. According to the the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added just 139,000 jobs last month (compared to the average monthly gain of 149,000 over the past 12 months).
Meanwhile, May’s unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 percent (same as April).
BLS shared that employment trended upward in health care, leisure and hospitality, and in social assistance, while the government continued to shed jobs (down 59,000 since January).
This week’s Dashboard also shows the nationwide average price for a gallon of gas is now $3.14. That’s down a penny (which are being phased out by the U.S. Treasury, by the way) from last month’s average, and pump prices remain far below last year's nationwide average of $3.48 in early-June 2024, according to AAA's daily data.
California ($4.72) still has by far the nation’s highest gas prices, though its current average price per gallon is down eight cents from last week. Hawaii ($4.47) and Washington state ($4.37) have the next highest average gas prices in the U.S., with Oregon ($3.97) and Nevada ($3.83) also close to the $4-per-gallon threshold. Meanwhile, Mississippi ($2.64), Tennessee ($2.71) and Louisiana ($2.73) have the cheapest average pump prices as of June 6.
In financial news, HBSDealer posted its latest 10-Q review, tracking the quarterly financial performance of 30 major publicly traded companies in the hardware and building supply industry. As we shared, it was a difficult earnings season for the industry.
“The latest earnings season ended on a low note, with Toro reporting sales and earnings declines of 2.3 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. Those figures were similar to the median declines based on data from all 30 companies.”
In building materials industry stock news, Week 23 maintained positive yet modest momentum. Every stock on our list except paint powerhouse Sherwin-Williams (-0.3%) rose on a month-over-month basis, with Stanley Black & Decker (+10.4%), Weyerhaeuser (+4.2%) and Masco (+3.0%) rallying the most. Year-over-year, however, just Home Depot (+14.2%) and Lowe’s (+6.2%) are up.
See the up-to-the minute stock prices of 30 industry companies tracked by HBSDealer here.
