national construction employment posts month of may gains

Last month added to a national construction employment boom with the creation of more than 25,000 new jobs.

Those numbers, according to the Washington-based Associated General Contractors of America, are folded into an overall robust addition of 286,000 construction jobs nationally since May of 2017.

Altogether, current national construction employment now stands at 7.2 million, roughly 4.1 percent higher than where it was a year ago.

Average hourly earnings, according to the AGC, are also up at $29.65 an hour, a 3.2 percent increase over the spring of 2017.

“Construction pay, employment, and demand have all increased as business conditions have improved,” said Stephen Sandherr, AGC’s chief executive officer, in a statement on the latest job numbers.

Conversely, construction unemployed has dropped to 4.4 percent, one of the lowest rates ever recorded, and a decrease from 5.3 percent in May 2017.

The AGC is also reporting that residential construction has enjoyed a 4.9 percent increase over last year, with 132,000 new jobs since the spring of 2017.

Non-residential construction has seen a smaller 15,400 increase in jobs from May of 2017 to May of this year.

By Garry Boulard