LoginAs the economy continues to become stronger and recover from the recent recession, construction has seen some employment growth and that trend has recently continued in most sectors of the industry.
According to the Engineering News-Record, Department of Labor Statistics figures found that the construction sector added 20,000 new jobs in September 2013, bringing the unemployment rate to a six-year low of 8.5 percent.
Total employment stood at 5,826,000 in the month, which includes another 8,000 jobs added from revised figures on August's employment report. Year-over-year, employment has increased by 3.4 percent, while aggregate weekly hours spiked 4.2 percent in that same time. That implies that not only are staffs increasing, but the industry as a whole is seeing further expansion of hours.
However, there's one point of the industry that hasn't seen consistent growth, according to the Motley Fool. Only about one quarter of the added jobs during September went into the residential construction sector, which was lower than the monthly averages in that section over the last six months.
Construction in residential formats has risen by more than 1 percent in the last few months. The culprit seems to be homebuilders who are too skittish about the economy's future to hire too many additional workers. A shortage of skilled labor has also been cited as a problem.