AGC: Spiking Materials Prices Hinder Recovery of Construction Jobs

While 29 states now employ more construction workers than before the pandemic, construction employment is still below February 2020 levels in 21 states and D.C., underscoring how spiking materials prices and tight labor markets are undermining the sector’s recovery, said the Associated General Contractors of America.

construction2 “Employment has risen in most of the nation over the past year, but contractors are having an increasingly hard time finding all the workers they need as unemployment hits record lows in more states,” said Ken Simonson, the trade association’s chief economist. “The scramble for workers is likely to drive wages and overtime costs even higher at the same time rising materials prices are cutting into already tight margins.”