The construction sector saw net job growth in 2011 for the first time in five years, the NAHB reports—a trend that’s likely to continue. In its “Eye on Housing” blog, the NAHB points to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover January preliminary data as “positive but small indicators” of growth.
January’s market-wide, private sector hiring rate was 3.1 percent, complementing an increasing number of job openings. Net hiring for construction in 2011 was 67,000, with net job creation at 17,000, the NAHB reports, citing that more job offers likely will boost employment, strengthening demand for various forms of housing.
The private sector saw a near-21 percent increase in job openings in January 2012 from the previous year. The construction sector mirrored that growth for the same period to reach 82,000 openings; however, the sector saw only 5 percent growth over December 2011.
An uptick in layoffs in late 2011 mirrors seasonal patterns, the NAHB says. The entire private sector experienced a nearly 7 percent increase over December 2011, but saw a 5.6 percent drop from the same month a year ago. Writes the NAHB: “The good news is that the seasonal increase in layoffs appears to have been smaller compared to the last three years. However, the hiring rate slowed somewhat for the construction sector in January, coming in at a 5.5 percent rate.”
To that point, the construction sector saw a 15 percent decrease in the number of layoffs from January 2011, but did experience a 6 percent increase from December 2011 to reach 281,000 for January 2012.
Overall, employment in the home building sector was 2.03 million for January, with 573,000 jobs in home building and 1.46 million in related fields. This represents growth from the sectors’ lowest employment levels of 1.99 million in December 2010, a figure that doesn’t include “spillover losses” form related industries.
