The construction industry posted 274,000 job openings on the last day of March, 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). This marked a decrease of 182,000 job openings from the previous month and 17,000 from the previous year.
“Construction job openings plunged in March, falling to the lowest level since October 2020,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “This dismal number likely reflects a statistical aberration rather than a legitimate decline in demand. We know the construction industry added jobs at a rapid pace in March, and both backlog and contractor confidence improved for the month, according to ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator and Construction Confidence Index, respectively.
“We have seen this kind of volatility in the JOLTS data before; construction job openings also plunged last March,” Basu added. “On a year-over-year basis, openings are only down modestly. The sizable decline in openings observed in March 2023 and 2024 may reflect seasonal hiring patterns that are not reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ seasonal adjustment factors. Accordingly, the data should not be viewed as a sign of an industry slowdown, at least not without another month or two of data to corroborate it.”
For more information, visit https://www.abc.org.
