January 4-10, 2006 - Construction employment dips; manufacturing orders mixed; price rises continue
Seasonally adjusted construction employment slipped by 9,000 in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. It was the first monthly drop in nearly two years. Over the past 12 months, industry employment swelled by 246,000 or 3.5%, more than double the 1.5% growth rate for total nonfarm payroll employment. Employment in all five BLS construction categories grew: residential specialty trade contractors, 5.4%, residential building, 4.5%; heavy and civil engineering, 4.2%; nonresidential building, 2.4%; and nonresidential specialty trade contractors, 1.5%. Seasonally adjusted average hourly earnings in construction rose to $19.69 in December, a gain of 2.1% over the course of the year and 18% more than the average for all private-sector production or nonsupervisory employees.
The seasonally adjusted rates of turnover in construction moved down from last summer through November, while the rate of job openings remained trendless, according to the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey data that BLS released today. In November, hiring equaled 5.4% of the end-of-month employment total, compared to a rate of 6% in August. The separations rate dropped from 6.2% to 5.1% over that span, and openings remained steady at 1.8%. The all-industry rate of openings was 2.8%, little changed over the past six months.