Even in a spring economy marked by tariff uncertainty, high interest rates, and federal government cutbacks, the construction industry last month recorded a strong increase of a combined 11,000 jobs in all sectors.
In figures just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonresidential construction employment was up by 8,000 over the month before, with the subcategory of nonresidential specialty trade jobs up by 4,900.
In the subcategory of residential specialty trade contractors, jobs were up in April over March by 4,100. One of the few subcategory sectors to see a decline came in heavy and civil engineering jobs, which were off by around 500 jobs.
Putting all the subcategories together, construction employment was up by 143,000 in April of this year over April of 2024.
The latest report, said Anirban Basu, chief economist with Associated Builders and Contractors, was evidence that backlog projects were “sufficiently elevated to keep industry employment growing for the time being.”
Exactly where things may be headed given the uncertainties of national policies in the coming months remains anything but clear, continued Basu, who nevertheless pointed to recent industry responses to the ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, which showed “contractors remain broadly optimistic.”
Nationally in all industries more than 177,000 jobs were created in April, a slight decrease from where things stood in March when the number stood at 185,000. These gains came as the federal government laid off around 9,000 employees last month.
In a statement, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer noted that a consensus of economists had predicted a 133,000 job gain for April, remarking that the latest figures showed that the Trump administration was “beating expectations” by around 40,000 jobs.
The Labor Secretary added that the “private sector is booming, with expansion continuing in critical areas.”
According to the BLS report, the health care industry once again proved a job creation machine with 51,000 news jobs added in April, followed by transportation and warehousing with a 29,000 increase, and the financial activities sector up by 14,000 jobs.
May 5, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
