For the third straight month, the nation’s construction industry posted an employment decline. The overall August loss was around 7,000.
In the most recent numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonresidential building was off by 3,300 jobs, while the nonresidential specialty trade sector saw a decline of 200 jobs.
Moving in the other direction, heavy and civil engineering saw an August increase of 2,300 jobs.
“The construction industry has now lost jobs in each of the past three months,” Anirban Basu, the chief economist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, said in a statement.
Basu added that “construction industry data have been particularly downbeat since March. With materials prices rising, and construction spending shrinking, it’s hardly a surprise that the industry’s workforce is contracting.”
From a year-to-year basis, the numbers are even more striking, with overall residential building off by 26,100; and residential specialty trade contractors seeing a 35,700-job decline.
Looking at all industries, the new BLS figures reveal that nonfarm employment in August was up by around 22,000. That figure was substantially below the 80,000 that a consensus of Wall Street economists had predicted.
At the same time, the U.S. unemployment rate hit the 4.3% mark, the highest it has been in nearly four years.
The labor market “is stalling,” asserts the Financial Times, “intensifying pressure on the Federal Reserve to slash borrowing costs this month.”
The latest figures, contends the New York Post, “are a sign that many employers are slowing or pausing hiring altogether as they face economic uncertainty.”
The new report showed that, once again, the healthcare industry led the nation’s new jobs category, adding 31,000 positions in August; ambulatory healthcare services were up by 13,000 news jobs, with nursing and residential care facilities seeing an increase of 9,000 jobs.
Generally ignoring the most recent job figures, Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer issued a statement pointing to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product, which she said,”smashed many economists’ expectations, demonstrating strong growth and resilience.”
The Labor Secretary added: “All job growth this year has been in the private sector among native-born Americans.”
September 8, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
