The ongoing impacts of the rates and actions of the application of immigration were found among the factors cited by economists for the estimated loss of 7,000 positions in August of the construction industry in August. On the other hand, the revised estimates of the Office of Labor Statistics of recent months show that construction work has decreased for each of the last three months.
According to BLS’s latest work report, published on September 5, Heavy and Civil Engineering was the only sector of construction that showed gains in August, with an estimated global increase of 2,300 employees.
Specialized trade contractors exceeded the largest number of jobs, with a loss of 5,400 positions in general. Above all, the vast majority of this decrease, 5,200 positions, focused on specialized contractors focused on residential construction. Non -residential specialized companies reported 200 positions.
Economists with associated builders and contractors (ABC) and the General Associate Contractors of America (AGC) cited continued concerns on the impacts of rates, immigration application actions and other policy changes as decay factors.
“Despite these labor losses, the scarcity of construction work seems to get worse as the immigration policy brings the supply of workers,” said Anirban Basu, ABC’s main economist in a statement.
“The data of the construction industry has been especially unpleasant since March,” Basu added. “With the prices of the materials that increase and the expenditure under construction, it is not a surprise that the labor force of the industry is hired.”
Ken Simonson, an AGC chief economist, also expressed his concern. “The last figures show that non -residential construction, not just housing construction, has stopped,” he said. “This fits in with the reports that the owners have touched on the pause on many projects, largely due to the uncertainty on the impact of the rates and other policy disorders.”
In his press release on August working numbers, AGC said that his recent AGC survey of America-Nccer found that “16% of construction companies reported that owners had canceled, postponed or reduced the projects derived from changes in demand or need due to rates”. Additionally, 26% of respondents stated that they underwent projects setback “derived from changes in demand or need due to policy changes in areas such as federal funding, taxes or regulations”.
Also, 28% of respondents reported that immigration application shares had affected their projects for the last six months.
“The economy depends on the construction,” said Jeffrey D. Shoaf, CEO of the association, in a statement. “The constant changes in the rates and other federal policies and the application of immigration wrongly interfere with the larger industry and economy.”
