ABC: Construction job openings up 25K from last year

The construction industry had 423,000 job openings on the last day of October, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). Industry job openings decreased by 4,000 in October but are up by 25,000 from the same time last year.

JOLTS defines a job opening as any unfilled position for which an employer is actively recruiting.

“The number of economywide job openings fell to 8.7 million in October, the lowest total since March 2021,” says ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “This is a strong indication that the demand for labor is slowing, although the supply of workers is still far too low to meet that demand. The number of open, unfilled jobs across the economy still exceeds the prepandemic level by more than 1.7 million.

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While labor market tightness is easing across all economic segments, Basu says worker scarcity remains a “pressing issue for the construction industry.”

“On the last day of October, 5 percent of construction positions were unfilled, which is well above the 3.9 percent industry job opening rate observed in February 2020,” he says. “With nearly half of contractors intending to increase their staffing levels over the next six months, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, the lack of available workers will remain a headwind for the construction industry over the next several quarters.”