US construction employment climbs again

Construction employment in the US increased by 14000 (+0.2%) in April, building on the 26000 jobs added to the industry in March. However, at 5.54 million jobs, construction industry employment in April was -9,0% lower than a year ago, and some -27% lower than the peak of 7.64 million jobs, seen in August 2006.

According to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) all the job increases were in non-residential building and civil engineering. It added that employment in residential building fell for the 37^th consecutive month in April, with 10900 jobs lost.

The AGC went on to say that the unemployment rate in the non-seasonally adjusted construction industry was 21.8% in April, the highest for this month since records were started in 1976. It said the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates there are currently 1.92 million unemployed would-be construction workers in the US.