The construction industry fared well in today’s jobs numbers report, adding 19K jobs in September. This is positive news for the industry as many companies have struggled with labor shortages over the past few months.

Nick Grandy, construction and real estate senior analyst at RSM, is diving into the specifics of the report and what these numbers indicate for the industry.

According to Nick:

• The unemployment rate for the construction industry fell to 3.8%, and continues to trend in the 3-4% range, indicating that there is a strong need for construction labor.
• Residential construction, excluding specialty contractors, lost 0.1K jobs, which we expect to continue as housing affordability issues impact demand.
• Non-residential construction, excluding specialty contractors, added 2.4K jobs and continues to push forward in spite of headwinds from rising interest rates and ongoing impacts from supply chain issues and material price increases.
• Heavy and civil construction lost 2.5K jobs. This continues to surprise in a negative fashion, especially with infrastructure funds beginning to make their way through government programs to projects.
• Specialty contractors are the largest group adding jobs, with 17.7K additions in September. Specialty residential construction employment is up 6.5K jobs and specialty non-residential added 11.2K.