Article source: ConstructConnect
At +311,000, the U.S. number on net jobs creation in February, as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), was okay. It was neither truly exciting, nor in any way disturbing. It was down from the +504,000 performance in January, but it wasn’t the kind of figure that would signal a recession has arrived on everyone’s doorstep.
And that’s what we’re all watching for, indications of slowdown in the economy that might take it into negative ‘real’ (i.e., inflation-adjusted) GDP change territory. That’s not what was delivered in February’s jobs report.
But there’s a recent alternative labor market reading which, specifically for the construction industry, is concerning. It comes from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and we’ll delve into that in a moment.
The U.S. economy-wide seasonally adjusted (SA) unemployment rate in February ticked up a little to 3.6% from 3.4% in January. On a not seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis, the U rate stayed the same as the month prior, at 3.9%.
