Job openings reached 251,000 for the construction industry in August, according to the recently released Survey of Job Openings and Labor Turnover by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of openings fell by 48,000 from the previous month, but was still 38,000 more than in August 2025.
“August JOLTS data indicate that both demand and supply of construction workers are declining,” Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, said in a statement. “Job postings fell to their lowest level since March, while just 99,000 construction workers were laid off during the month, the fewest in any month since this data series began in December 2000.”
Total hiring came in at 308,000, down 50,000 from July and down 28,000 from August last year. Two hundred and seventy-two thousand total separations were recorded, with a decrease in layoffs and discharges by 58,000 monthly and 83,000 annually. Casualties, also in the same category, were the only sector that increased both monthly and annually, at a rate of 3,000 and 2,000, respectively.
Basu noted that the drop in both openings and terminations is due to “continued weakness in the residential segment coupled with a boom in data center activity and the resulting shortage of certain skilled workers.” Contractors working in the non-residential market “are likely to experience a faster escalation of labor costs because of this shortage in certain occupational categories such as electricians and HVAC workers,” he said.
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