The construction industry has added more than 68,000 new jobs between May of 2025 and this most recent May, according to a new report by the Associated Builders and Contractors, with nonresidential construction seeing a healthy gain last month of 15,700.
Heavy and civil engineering posted an increase of 1,700 jobs, while the overall construction industry unemployment rate stood at 4.1%, lower than the national average for all industries at 4.3%.
The ABC figures play off the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report, which on Friday said jobs in all industries increased by upwards of 172,000. The May figures were only slightly off from the month before when around 179,000 new jobs were reported.
In a statement, Keith Sonderling, Acting Secretary of Labor, hailed the new figures, remarking that they were “demolishing economists’ expectations.” The May report marks the third consecutive month that job gains have exceeded 100,000.
The latest figures, said the Financial Times, “provided the latest indicator that US employment is stabilizing after a rocky 2025.” Remarked the Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. labor market has climbed out of a rut.”
Sectors seeing the greatest growth include, once again, the nation’s healthcare industry with 35,000 new jobs; social assistance employment, up by 12,000 jobs; mining and oil and gas extraction, seeing an increase of 5,000 jobs last month.
Some reports have raised the question of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ numbers after the previous head of the agency, Erika McEntarfer, was fired by President Trump. But in a report published on Friday, the New York Times maintained that there is “no evidence that the administration is skewing the data.”
“Current and former agency employees,” continued the paper, “say they continue to trust the numbers as do the Wall Street economists who scrutinize the figures each month.”
Earlier this year Trump appointed economist Brett Matsumoto to replace McEntarfer.
June 8, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
