most national construction segments post new early summer job increases

Although the national construction job pool remains smaller by just over 1 million people since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, last month nevertheless saw an increase of over 158,000 jobs in the industry.

According to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that June increase follows an even larger May jump of 453,000.

The improved construction job outlook is part of an overall 4.8 million increase in all jobs, says the BLS report, noting that “improvements in the labor market reflected the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March and April due to the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to contain it.”

Nonresidential construction saw a 13,000 gain in jobs in June, although compared with the total jobs in this segment from a year ago, it is still off by 47,000 jobs.

Residential building firms added 19,100 new job in June, with the residential specialty trade contractors segment seeing a significant increase of 64,100 workers last month.

Heavy and civil engineering construction, however, remained off by 9,700 jobs in June, contributing to an overall decrease of more than 60,100 jobs compared to last June.

Altogether, total national construction stood at 7.1 million, a figure that is off by some 562,000 since February.

In a separate question revealing the overall decrease of construction jobs in the last few months, the BLS also noted that some 962,000 unemployed workers identified their last jobs as being in the construction industry.

That 962,000 comprises the largest such figure on the record books since the summer of 2012.
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In June of 2019, just over 390,000 recently unemployed workers said their most recent jobs had been in construction.

By Garry Boulard

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