Steel Markets
September 6, 2019
Construction Adds 14,000 Jobs in August
Written by Sandy Williams
Employment gains fell short of expectations in August with only 130,000 new nonfarm jobs reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. Construction employment accounted for 14,000 jobs last month and 177,000 in the past 12 months, according to the latest analysis of government data by the Associated General Contractors of America.
Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, noted that the 2.4 percent growth in construction employment between August 2018 and August 2019 was the slowest in more than six years, but that the rate remained well above the 1.4 percent increase in total nonfarm payroll employment. There were 361,000 unemployed jobseekers who last worked in construction—an unemployment rate of 3.6 percent for such workers. Simonson said those were the second-lowest August levels since the series began in 2000.
