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The construction industry had 249,000 job openings on the last day of October, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. JOLTS defines a job opening as any unfilled position for which an employer is actively recruiting. Industry job openings decreased by 9,000 for the month and are down by 164,000 from the same time last year.
"Construction industry job openings fell again in October and are down nearly 40% over the past year," said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. "While JOLTS data can be volatile from month to month, especially at the industry level, the decline in unfilled construction positions is undeniable over the past few quarters. On average, just 3.4% of industrywide positions were open over the past six months, the lowest rate since 2020.
"There's reason to suspect that election uncertainty, combined with the expectation that borrowing costs will decline over the next several quarters, delayed staffing decisions over the past few months," said Basu. "Industry hiring fell to the lowest level since 2020 in October, while contractors laid off fewer workers than in any month on record. With industrywide employment growth outpacing the broader economy over the past few quarters and contractors on net expecting to increase their staffing levels over next six months, according to ABC's Construction Confidence Index, it appears that construction job openings will rise through the early months of 2025."