Construction Trend Tuesday
Layoffs lay low
Construction Trend Tuesday covers one (hopefully) interesting industry trend in a quick, two minute read. You can access the archive of CTT posts here. If you’d like to sponsor CTT posts, just respond to this email or drop us a comment.
Last week’s CTT post was about how construction job openings have plummeted over the past year or so—demand for workers has slumped, and the supply of workers has improved.
Contractors typically lay off more workers when there are lots of workers and fewer jobs, but that hasn’t happened this time around (at least not yet). Contractors laid off just 1.7% of their employees in March 2025. That’s just above the all-time low of 1.6% and lower than in any month prior to September 2021.
A few possible explanations come to mind. Labor was historically hard to find right after the pandemic. Maybe that experience spooked contractors, and they’re now afraid to cut staff. It’s also possible that contractors are still busy despite softening construction spending and fewer job openings. Notably, backlog remains in pretty good shape.
Feel free to send us alternative explanations (reply to this email, comment on this post, or at Sage@sageecon.com. It’s helpful to hear from those of you with boots on the ground.
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