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Dive brief:
- Construction job offers slowed to begin 2026, with the industry counting 231,000 open positions on the last day of January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- That was a month-over-month drop of 14,000 job openings since December and 1,000 fewer job openings year-over-year than in January 2025. Of all construction jobs, 2.7 percent remained unfilled at the end of the first month of the year.
- Construction economists say the data indicate that the hiring environment has been stable, but that companies have remained cautious about adding significant numbers of workers in the face of economic uncertainties.
Diving knowledge:
Construction employers hired 349,000 new workers in January, representing 4.2% of all positions in the industry. That represented significant growth, but economists are still urging caution.
“While construction hiring accelerated in January, rising at the fastest pace since the first half of 2025, unfortunately that’s not saying much,” Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, said in a statement. “The rate of industry hiring is still slower than at any time between the start of the data series in 2001 and the end of 2019.”
Meanwhile, the rate at which construction workers quit or were laid off held steady at 1.7 percent and 2 percent, respectively, said Macrina Wilkins, director of market information for the Associated General Contractors of America.
“The combination of low layoffs and fewer voluntary resignations suggests that contractors are holding on to workers even as hiring demand remains subdued,” Wilkins told Construction Dive via email.
Early data for 2026 indicated construction started the year with less momentum than 2025. As megaprojects in the booming data center and healthcare sectors thrive, activity in the commercial and institutional segments has slowed. Meanwhile, lingering questions about tariffs and input costs continue to weigh on the sector.
For now, contractors appear to be maintaining their crews, although they have been steadily pushing their plans to hire more workers in the future, according to Basu.
“Contractors remain confident that their staffing levels will expand over the next six months, according to the ABC’s construction confidence index, although this confidence has remained intact for much of the past few years while hiring has remained subdued,” Basu said.
