The construction industry unemployment rate, which fell 1 percentage point in May, declined further in June and now stands at just 4.5 percent. Construction unemployment tends to decline in the summer; however, the decline in unemployment is still significant because industry unemployment now stands near lows achieved in 2006.

“This jobs report is just what the doctor ordered,” said Anirban Basu, chief economist, ABC.  “June’s employment gains impressed along every dimension. In addition to a robust headline of 222,000 jobs created, the labor force participation rate ticked higher to 62.8 percent from 62.7 percent and the employment-to-population ratio edged higher to 60.1 percent from 60.0 percent.  While the labor force participation rate is only a bit higher than it was a year ago, the employment-to-population ratio is up 0.5 percent. Idleness has been on the decline in America, at least based upon the latter measure.

“Construction job growth represents an important part of the story. The majority of construction job gains in June were in non-residential construction, though performance within the non-residential building and heavy/civil engineering segments was subdued. Within non-residential construction, nonresidential specialty trade contractors represented more than 100 percent of job gains.”

For more information, visit www.abc.org.

Publication date: 7/24/2017

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