Construction job openings rose by 23,000 in March, compared with February, according to data from the recently released U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Survey of Job Openings and Labor Turnover. The increase brought the total number of construction job openings to 224,000, which was down 54,000 from the figure recorded in March 2025.
“The industry labor market continues to be defined by a complete lack of turnover,” Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, said in a statement. “Construction sector hiring recovered from February’s historically low level, but remains extremely subdued.”
Month-over-month, hiring increased by 14,000 while total separations (including layoffs, layoffs, layoffs and other departures) increased by 8,000. Since March of last year, however, separations have decreased by 32,000, while hiring has only increased by 8,000 jobs.
“Contractors are also reluctant to lay off workers; the layoff/layoff rate fell at the slowest pace since early 2024 and is lower than at any point before 2022,” Basu said. “At the same time, workers are also reluctant to quit compared to the prevailing trend in the late 2010s and early 2020s.”
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