US construction employment stagnated in January, ending eight months of recovery from the pandemic-related losses of early 2020, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of government data.
“The stagnation in construction employment in January may foreshadow further deterioration in the industry as projects that had started before the pandemic finish up and owners hold off on awarding new work,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “With so much of the economy still shut down or operating at reduced levels, it will likely be a long time before many nonresidential contractors are ready to hire again.”
Construction employment dipped by 3,000 to 7,392,000 in January from a downwardly revised December total. Employment in the sector remains 256,000 or 3.3 percent lower than in February 2020, the most recent peak.
Nonresidential construction has had a much weaker recovery than homebuilding and home improvement construction, Simonson added. While both parts of the industry had huge job losses in early 2020 from the pre-pandemic peak in February to April, residential building and specialty trade contractors have now recouped all of the employment losses they incurred. In contrast, nonresidential construction employment—comprising nonresidential building, specialty trades, and heavy and civil engineering construction—was 259,000 or 5.5 percent lower in January than in February 2020. Only 60 percent of the job losses in nonresidential construction had been erased as of last month.
Unemployment in construction soared over the past 12 months. The industry’s unemployment rate in January was 9.4 percent, compared to 5.4 percent in January 2020. A total of 938,000 former construction workers were unemployed, up from 515,000 a year earlier. Both figures were the highest for January since 2015.