In November 2025, employment levels were largely unchanged across all states, with year-over-year growth holding near 2%. In contrast, construction employment showed greater variation, with some states experiencing declines of up to 7.5% while others posted gains approaching 10%.
The recent federal government shutdown provides important context for this Bureau of Labor Statistics release, as it disrupted the regular collection of survey data and delayed some statistical reporting. Because of this interruption, the November release focuses on year-over-year comparisons rather than the typical month-to-month changes.
Year-over-year ending in November, 933,000 jobs have been added to the labor market, which is a 0.6% increase compared to the November 2024 level. The range of job gains spanned from 200 jobs in Wyoming to 146,300 jobs in Texas. Nine states and the District of Columbia lost a total of 58,900 jobs in the past 12 months, with the District of Columbia reporting the steepest job losses at 32,800. In percentage terms, the range of job growth spanned 0.1% in Nevada, Connecticut, Wyoming, and Washington to 2.0% in South Carolina. The range of job losses across states spanned 0.1%-0.7%. However, the District of Colombia posted a decline of 4.2%.
Construction Employment
Across the nation, construction sector jobs data 1—which includes both residential and non-residential construction—showed an increase of 58,000 jobs over the year. This is a 0.7% increase compared to the November 2024 level. Texas added 24,000 jobs, which was the largest gain of any state, while New York lost 18,100 construction sector jobs. In percentage terms, Iowa had the highest annual growth rate in the construction sector at 9.9%. During this period, New Jersey reported the largest decline of 7.5%.