Construction employment set a record in April, with a seasonally adjusted payroll employment figure of 7.51 million, a gain of 267,000 or 3.7 percent from last year, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), who was commenting on the monthly statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
“The construction industry has added jobs more than twice as fast as the 1.5 percent growth rate for total non-farm payroll employment,” says Simonson. “Furthermore, all BLS construction employment categories are up by more than 1.5 percent. Even homebuilders have continued to add workers, despite an expectation that housing would have tapered off by now. There is evidently still a backlog of sold but un-built houses.”
While encouraged by the growth in employment, Simonson expresses concern about the supply and cost of construction materials. “Contractors in the past two weeks have reported to the AGC that cement had run out in Spokane, Wash., and Little Rock, Ark., and that fly ash was unobtainable in Oregon,” he says. “All of the commodities reported in short supply had a construction connection: asphalt, copper, roofing materials, skilled labor, steel, tires, valves and wallboard.”
He also said that the Institute for Supply Management said that its non-manufacturing members have reported price increases for asphalt, construction labor, copper, diesel fuel, freight and fuel surcharges, insulation, roofing materials, steel, tires and wallboard.