Construction hiring jumped in January; value put in place climbed in December
Construction accounted for nearly one-fourth (46,000 or 24%) of the 193,000 nonfarm payroll jobs added in January, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. In addition, the total for December was revised to +4,000 from an initial estimate of -9,000.
Construction accounted for nearly one-fourth (46,000 or 24%) of the 193,000 nonfarm payroll jobs added in January, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. In addition, the total for December was revised to +4,000 from an initial estimate of -9,000. That means the industry has increased employment for 12 straight months, for a total gain of 345,000 (4.9%) to a record 7,460,000. All five BLS construction employment categories added jobs in that span. Heavy and civil engineering employment grew 6%; residential specialty trades 8%; residential building, 5%; nonresidential building, 3%; and nonresidential specialty trades. 2%. Yet the average hourly wage in construction rose only 2.2%, to $19.65, compared to a 3.3% rise for all private nonsupervisory workers.
The value of construction put in place reached $1.16 trillion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, up 1.0% from November and 8.1% from December 2004, the Census Bureau reported on Wednesday. The figures are not adjustef for inflation. Spending in 2005 as a whole totaled $1.12 trillion, an increase of 8.9% from 2004. As was the case for most of the year, growth was well distributed among the major construction segments. From December 2004 to December 2005, public construction grew 10%, private residential rose 9%, and private nonresidential was up 6%. For the year, those categories increased 8%, 11%, and 5%, respectively. Both single- and multi-family construction increased in December, despite bad weather in some regions and worries that housing had finally begun to turn down. Compared to November, the two segments were up 0.2 and 1.0%, respectively. That was consistent with the full-year totals, which were respectively 12 and 21% higher than in 2004. The biggest public category, highway and street construction, dipped in December, perhaps because of worse than normal weather for the month, but for the year was 11% ahead of the total for 2004. The best-performing large private nonresidential segments in 2005 were multi-retail (general merchandise, shopping centers and shopping malls), +26%; manufacturing construction, +21%; and hospitals, +13%.