Construction Trend Tuesday (#19)

Job growth slows

Construction employment growth slowed considerably around the start of 2025, though it’s held steady over the past few months.

A lot of this has to do with the residential side of the industry. Specifically, employment among residential specialty trade contractors has declined by 27,200 since peaking last September.

There’s also a question of how immigration restrictions (and related dynamics) have affected data. We don’t know how many undocumented workers have been captured by official statistics. The industry could be losing jobs at a rapid clip, but we wouldn’t know it if undocumented workers are not accurately reflected in the data. There could also be a dynamic where documented workers are replacing undocumented ones, creating the illusion of job growth.

One thing we do know: demand for construction workers has slowed considerably. Industrywide job openings are down approximately 45% since the December 2023 peak.

What’s Next

Next week brings us critical updates on retail sales and inflation. We’ll cover that and a whole lot more in Week in Review, our every-Friday post that covers all the economic news and data in a breezy, five minute read.

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