Labor

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Labor market remains tight

As the industry’s unemployment rate tumbled, construction companies added 20,000 employees in November 2022 and raised wages for hourly workers faster than other sectors, according to findings from the Arlington, Virginia-based Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). The association says the statistics show that construction firms would have added more workers if they could find more people to hire.

“It is heartening that both residential and nonresidential construction firms were able to add employees in November,” AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson says. “The number of job openings continues to outpace hiring, suggesting employers wanted to bring on many more workers than they are able to find.”

Construction employment totaled what AGC says is a record-high of approximately 7.75 million in November, an increase of 20,000 for the month and 248,000 (or 3.3 percent) from one year earlier.

Pay levels in the construction industry continued to increase in November at a faster pace than in the overall private sector, AGC says. Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers in construction—mostly hourly craft workers—climbed by 6.1 percent, from $31.04 per hour in November 2021 to $32.94 per hour in November 2022. A separate government report released at the end of November shows the construction industry had 377,000 job openings at the end of October, exceeding the 341,000 employees hired that month. The association says that too few students are exposed to career opportunities in the construction industry.

“Public officials are missing a great opportunity to put many more people on the path to financial security,” AGC CEO Stephen E. Sandherr says. “We should be exposing them to careers where they can earn a great living.”