Construction Employment Climbs By 36,000 in May, While Hourly Earnings Rise at Fastest Yearly Rate in 40 Years
Rapidly rising hourly earnings enabled the construction industry to add 36,000 employees in May, but a record number of job openings going into the month suggests contractors want to hire even more workers, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of new government data. Association officials said firms would have hired even more workers if they could find more people willing to work in the sector.
“It is encouraging that contractors were able to add workers in May, but they will need many more to meet the increasing demand for infrastructure and private nonresidential projects,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “Despite steeply rising pay for hourly workers, job openings in construction hit an all-time high at the end of April, while the industry’s low unemployment rate suggests experienced workers are scarce.”
Average earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees—mainly hourly craft workers in construction —rose by 6.3 percent from May 2021 to last month, the most since December 1982, Simonson pointed out.
The unemployment rate among jobseekers with construction experience tumbled from 6.7 percent in May 2021 to 3.8 percent last month, the economist noted. The number of unemployed construction workers fell by 250,000 or 39 percent to 392,000, suggesting there are few experienced jobseekers left to hire.