As the number of housing units under construction peaked in 2023, the industry set another record employing close to 11.4 million people, including self-employed workers. NAHB estimates that out of this total, 4.7 million people worked in residential construction, accounting for 2.9% of the U.S. employed civilian labor force. Home building in the Mountain Division,…
The share of self-employed in construction remains just under 23%, a new post-pandemic norm. While this is significantly higher than an economy-wide average of 10% of the employed labor force, for construction, these rates are historically low. Across the nation, construction self-employment rates range from 38% in Maine to 13% in Nevada. As of 2023,…
In the home building industry, fringe benefits add an additional 18% to employees’ compensation on top of payroll, according to NAHB’s analysis of the latest 2022 Economic Census data. The rates vary across residential construction sub-sectors with single-family and multifamily general contractors contributing an average of 20% on top of payroll. Fringe benefits in residential…
As reported in a previous post, immigrants make up one in four workers in the construction industry. The share of immigrants is significantly higher (32.5%) among construction tradesmen. In some states, reliance on foreign-born labor is particularly evident, with immigrants comprising over 40% of the construction workforce in California and New Jersey, and 38% –…
Reflecting the sharp increase in net immigration of recent years, the number of new immigrants joining the construction industry rose substantially in 2022. According to the latest American Community Survey (ACS), the industry managed to attract close to 130,000 new workers coming from outside the U.S. to help with persistent labor shortages. For comparison, this…
The number of homes started in 2023 exceeding 5,000 square feet, dropped to 26,000, a decrease from 29,000 in 2022, according to the annual data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC). In 2006, the number of new 5,000+ square foot homes reached a peak of 45,000. This number proceeded to drop during the Great Recession…
Lot values for single-family detached spec homes continued to rise, with national values reaching a new high in 2023, according to NAHB’s analysis of the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC) data. The U.S. median lot value for single family detached for-sale homes started in 2023 stood at $58,000, with half of the lots valued…
