After a strong showing in January, private construction growth slackened slightly in February, according to seasonally adjusted monthly jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Preliminary numbers indicate a 2 percent dip in the sector’s job openings for the month down to 84,000. Hiring also dropped 6 percent from January, totaling 310,000 hires for February. The hiring rate of 5.6 percent for February represents a minimal decline from January figures, but nearly a full point from the same period in 2011. Nationwide, private sector hiring experienced a 3 percent decrease, rating at 3.7 percent.
Although February’s reported private construction job openings are up by 69 percent from the same period a year ago, more than four times the private sector national average, hiring in the sector declined by 15 percent from the same period. Non-adjusted industry layoff rates dropped 2 points from January 2012, but remain consistent with the year-ago period at a rate of 4.2 percent and represent 213,000 layoffs last month.
Seasonally adjusted quit levels, which increased by 8 percent nationally for private sector jobs over February 2011, dipped by 2 percent to 67,000 for the same period. The sector’s quit rate of 1.2 percent is the third-lowest private-sector rate, surpassed by government (0.6 percent) and manufacturing (0.8 percent), and is lower than the national private-sector average rate of 1.8 percent.
