Construction Week

摘要

The construction industry added 16,000 jobs in June, and its unemployment rate dipped from May's level and was slightly below the year-earlier rate, the Dept. of Labor has reported. The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest monthly report, released on July 7, showed that construction's June jobless rate declined to 4.5% from May's 5.3%; it also edged down from the June 2016 mark of 4.6%. The BLS unemployment rates are not modified to reflect seasonal variations; construction's rate tends to fall in the summer as the pace of building picks up. Construction's gain of 16,000 jobs last month was almost twice the 9,000 the industry picked up in the previous three months combined, the Associated General Contractors of America observed. AGC also noted that construction's total workforce rose in June by 206,000, or 3.1%, from the year-earlier total. But the industry's monthly employment growth in June was concentrated in two sectors: specialty-trade contractors, which added 18,500 positions, and heavy-civil engineering construction, which picked up 2,500. But residential and non-residential buildings construction lost a total of 4,700 jobs during the month.