Eye On Housing
Employment growth slowed in September. Total payroll employment rose by 661,000 and the unemployment rate fell to 7.9% for the month. The U.S. labor market continues to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, but admittedly now at a slower pace. Residential construction employment rose by 22,100 in September to 2.9 million as housing remains a bright spot. Total construction industry (both… Read More ›
After an accelerated pace of layoffs in March and April, construction hiring roared back in May, increasing the count of open jobs in July per data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The rebound for construction is concentrated in the residential building sector. The pace of construction rehiring increased the open jobs rate to 4.4% in… Read More ›
In August, total payroll employment rose by 1.4 million and the unemployment rate fell to 8.4%. The U.S. labor market continues to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. Residential construction employment rose by 27,700 in August to 2.9 million. Total construction industry (both residential and nonresidential) employment rebounded to 7.2 million in August. It is worth noting, however, that nonresidential construction… Read More ›
After an accelerated pace of layoffs in March and April, construction sector hiring roared back in May and continued at somewhat reduced pace in June, per data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). In May, the hiring rate increased to 9.7%, after a subdued 3.7% rate in April. This was the strongest rate of hiring in… Read More ›
Surpassing recent dampened expectations, total payroll employment rose by 1.8 million and the unemployment rate declined to 10.2% in July. The U.S. labor market continues to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. Residential construction employment rose by 24,000 in July to 2.8 million. Total construction industry (both residential and nonresidential) employment rebounded to nearly 7.2 million in July. It is worth… Read More ›
In June, total payroll employment rose by 4.8 million and the unemployment rate dropped to 11.1%. The June data indicate that labor market is recovering from the COVID-19 crisis, though the road to a full recovery may be long. Residential construction employment rose by 83,200 in June to 2.8 million. Total construction industry (both residential and nonresidential) employment rebounded to… Read More ›
In May, the unemployment rate posted a surprise decline to 13.3% and total payroll employment rose by 2.5 million as the economy partially reopened. Residential construction employment rose by 226,000 in May to 2.7 million, partially reversing a loss of 422,000 in April. Total construction industry (both residential and nonresidential) employment rebounded to 7.0 million in May. In the Employment… Read More ›
Backward-looking data illustrate the degree of damage done by the sudden stop of the U.S. economy due to the public health response associated with the coronavirus. For example, there were 4,300 net job losses in residential construction in March, followed by a staggering 415,000 losses in home building and remodeling in April. The leading edge of this job loss was… Read More ›
Total payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April and the unemployment rate soared to 14.7%. Residential construction employment decreased by 415,000 in April to 2.5 million. This drop brought the current level of residential construction employment back to the level in December 2015 (2,538,000 jobs). Total construction industry (both residential and nonresidential) employment dropped by about 1 million to… Read More ›
Given the growing number of economic impacts from mitigation efforts associated with the coronavirus, early 2020 labor market data is of much reduced analytical value. However, the data help to describe where the economy was before the shocks of March and the potential for gains in an eventual rebound we expect to take hold during the fourth quarter. February data… Read More ›