Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), residential construction employment is now at 3.4 million, with 961,000 builders and 2.4 million residential speciality trade contractors.
In December 2024, construction workers saw a 5.5% unemployment rate. This is slightly higher than last year, but still relatively low compared to unemployment levels during the pandemic.
In the construction sector, employment increased by 8,000 in December, with 4,000 residential construction jobs added and 4,700 non-residential construction employment jobs gained.
Overall, the U.S. labor market saw job growth and a declining unemployment rate at the end of 2024.
Wage growth slowed in December, with a 3.9% year-over-year growth rate, a decrease of 0.3% from December 2023. Despite this, over 2.3 million jobs were created in 2024 and monthly employment growth averaged 186,000 per month. This was lower than monthly average gain for 2023, which was 251,000.
In December of last year, the unemployment rate lowered to 4.1%, decreasing the number of unemployed persons by 235,000.
The labor force participation rate remained stable in December at 62.5%.
