This article originally appeared on the REMODELING website.
Construction employment grew by 52,000 in the first month of 2019 and has grown 4.7% year over year, according to Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) analysis of government data. The AGC report also finds that construction spending moderately increased across all industry categories.
The 7,464,000 construction-related jobs in the economy at the end of January are the most in the industry since January 2008, according to AGC. Government reporting on construction spending has been delayed a month by the recent government shutdown, but data from November show industry spending increased 4.5% year-to-date in the first 11 months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. Spending rose nearly 4.0% for residential construction projects year over year.
The 7,464,000 construction-related jobs in the economy at the end of January are the most in the industry since January 2008, according to AGC. Government reporting on construction spending has been delayed a month by the recent government shutdown, but data from November show industry spending increased 4.5% year-to-date in the first 11 months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. Spending rose nearly 4.0% for residential construction projects year over year.
AGC analysis found the average weekly hours for construction industry workers reached 39.9 hours in January 2019, the highest since the figure began being measured in 2006. Additionally, the average weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory employees in the industry reached a record high of 40.6 hours.
While the industry workweek reached an all-time high, unemployment for workers with construction experience dropped nearly a full percentage point from January 2018 to 6.4%. The January industry unemployment percentage is the lowest for the first month of the year since 2000.
High demand for workers and low industry unemployment reflect wider trends that have been observed for the past several months in the construction industry. A survey released by the AGC in January found that nearly 80% of firms were having trouble filling positions despite trying to add workers and almost 70% of contractors indicated that hiring would either remain difficult or become more difficult in 2019.
