Construction employment rose for the 10th straight month, by 14,000 to 6,873,000, breaking the record set in March 2001. Since February the industry has added 173,000 jobs (+2.6%), while the rest of the economy has shed 285,000 jobs (-0.2%).

This month employment rose slightly in all three of BLS's construction segments. Over the past year, employment has risen 17,000 (+1%) in construction of buildings, 4,000 (+0.4%) in heavy and civil engineering construction, and 5,000 (+0.1%) among specialty trade contractors. Seasonally adjusted average hourly earnings in construction rose over the year by 29 cents (1.5%) to $19.10, 23% above the average for all private production or nonsupervisory workers. Average weekly earnings in the industry (not seasonally adjusted) rose 1.8% to $723.09, as average weekly hours remained nearly constant at 37.7.