Construction jobs continued on the upside in May with an increase of 25,000, contributing to a historically low national unemployment rate.
According to just-released figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall jobs in May jumped by a healthy 223,000, with the country’s unemployment rate plunging to 3.8 percent.
That 3.8 percent is the lowest seen since the last year of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
“Over the year, the unemployment rate was down by 0.5 percent, and the number of unemployed persons declined by 772,000,” the Labor Bureau’s Employment Situation—May 2018 reports.
But the numbers were particularly impressive in the nation’s construction industry, says the report, posting 2.8 million jobs for May.
Those numbers are made up of some 2 million residential specialty trade contractors, and just under 800,000 builders.
Tracking from January of this year, the average number of new jobs in residential construction has come in at just a little under 13,200 a month. Over the course of the last year, according to the Labor Bureau, remodelers and home builders have added more than 132,000 new jobs.
Like the larger national unemployment numbers, the construction industry unemployment rate hit a new low: 5.0 percent, a rate not seen since 2001.
By Garry Boulard
