Construction jobs fell by 28,000 in February to 202,000, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Since February 2025, available positions have dropped by 53,000.
“Construction hiring fell to the slowest pace on record in February,” Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, said in a statement. “At the same time, contractors were reluctant to lay off workers, while employees were even more reluctant to leave.”
On a monthly basis, hiring decreased by 88,000, while total job separations decreased by 34,000. Year-on-year, the number of hires fell by 74,000, with 57,000 separations. Of all the categories, the only one that increased was the annual number of layoffs and terminations, 4,000 more since February 2025.
“The combination of historically slow hiring and very few separations made February 2026 the month with the least labor movement since the BLS began this survey in December 2000,” Basu said, adding that this data was recorded before the start of the conflict in Iran in late February. “Recent data and developments suggest that hiring is unlikely to recover in the near future.”
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