The number of new job openings in the construction industry has seen a dramatic 50% drop between December of 2023 and this past December, according to a new report.
The Bureau of Labor Statistic says the decline meant that there were 217,000 job openings in December of 2024 compared with the end of 2023 when the number stood at around 343,000.
The construction job openings figure was in a general decline for most of 2024 but saw an uptick in November when it came in at 272,000, an increase that may have been impacted by the uncertainty of the presidential election and the ongoing impact of the year’s high interest rates. That 272,000 figure was most surprising in that it followed September’s 258,000 figure.
While the construction industry’s late 2024 job opening figures were moving in the right direction at 217,000, the manufacturing sector, according to the BLS, saw 428,000 openings in December, off by 158,000 over the year before; while the retail trade sector had job openings in the neighborhood of 553,000, a drop of 157,000 from the previous December.
The job opening count was also markedly down in the mining and logging, durable goods, and transportation, warehousing, and utilities sectors.
Putting all of the industry figures together for a national picture, notes a narrative accompanying the latest BLS figures, “the number of job openings decreased to 7.6 million on the last business day of December,” down from 8.8 million in December of 2023.
From November to December, the national figure was somewhat less dramatic, seeing a drop from 5.5 million to 5.3 million.
While the construction industry has consistently added new jobs throughout the last months, the real increases were seen elsewhere, according to a just-published analysis of the nation’s employment picture by J.P. Morgan Wealth Management service.
That report, put together by J.P. Morgan content analyst Seth Carlson, noted that the big job gains remained concentrated in “health care, retail trade, and social assistance sectors.”
Sectors seeing a loss of jobs include the arts, entertainment and recreation sector; as well as the accommodation and food service sector.
February 20, 2025
By Garry Boulard
