Posts Tagged ‘employ’
Monday, November 6th, 2023
Article source: ConstructConnect
The latest Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics speaks of a +150,000 gain in the total number of U.S. jobs in October. That figure on its own is ho-hum. It is the second lowest monthly increase since pandemic days. (June of this year was weaker at +105,000).
The gain of +150,000 overstates the buoyancy. Versus the total jobs count of 156.874 million reported for September a month ago, October’s figure of 156.923 million was ahead by only +49,000 jobs. In the October report, September was revised down by -101,000 jobs.
The net result is that U.S. hiring is now as close to being flat as it has been in nearly three years.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Canada, ConstructConnect, Construction, Economy, employ, employment, Growth, interest rate, recovery
Comments Off on Flattening Prospects in U.S. and Canadian Jobs Markets in October
Friday, September 3rd, 2021
Article source: ConstructConnect
August’s Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that the total number of jobs in the U.S. economy rose by +235,000 in the latest month. A gain of nearly a quarter of a million jobs may sound like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s rather tame.
Compare it with the month prior’s performance. July was originally reported at +943,000 jobs. That figure has now been revised higher to +1.053 million.
Job creation in August became bogged down. It was probably due to the coronavirus making a comeback, by way of the Delta variant, and threatening a fourth wave heading into the Fall.
The best illustration of how hiring tapped out in August can be found in the ‘leisure and hospitality’ sector. The economy-wide staffing change with bars and restaurants and hotels/motels in the latest month was zero.
Nevertheless, it’s encouraging to note that the year over year change in ‘leisure and hospitality’ employment is a strong +17.4%.
Total employment is now +4.3% y/y; construction employment is +2.7%.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Economist, Economy, employ, employment, jobless, jobs, Labor, market
Comments Off on Little Meat on the Bones of the August U.S. Jobs Report
Thursday, July 15th, 2021
Article source: ConstructConnect
A Compelling Megaproject Story
ConstructConnect announced today that June 2021’s volume of construction starts, excluding residential work, was $38.4 billion (green shaded box, Table 8 below), an increase of +14.4% vs May 2021’s $33.6 billion (originally reported as $32.5 billion).
Compared with June 2020, the latest month’s dollar volume of total nonresidential starts was -4.3%. On a year-to-date basis (i.e., Jan-Jun 2021/Jan-Jun 2020), total nonresidential starts have been -10.9%.
View this information as an infographic
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Economic, Economist, Economy, employ, employment, Housing, interest rate, job, lumber, shareknowledge, steel, US
Comments Off on June’s Nonresidential Construction Starts +14% M/M, But -11% YTD
Wednesday, February 19th, 2020
Article source: ConstructConnect
There are certainly hints that the coronavirus outbreak could be the ‘Black Swan’ that will bring the decade-long period of U.S. economic expansion to an end. Are the statistics being reported out of China accurate? How virulent is the disease? Can it realistically be contained within limited geographic regions?
 Suspensions of airline routes, postponements of travel plans, and overseas cancellations of high-profile sporting events, as well as an underlying shift in peoples’ appetite for dining out, cruising their local mall, or gathering in a public space do not bode well for the next while at least, or until more clarity has been achieved concerning COVID-19’s damaging effects.
Nevertheless, the latest weeks have featured a particularly active generation of private sector and government agency data releases concerning the economy. Some of the best ‘nuggets’ are summarized below.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Canada, China, ConstructConnect, Deficit, Economy, employ, employment, Energy Sector, home, house, Housing, interest rate, jobless, manufacturing, oil imports
Comments Off on 9 Mid-February Economic Nuggets
Thursday, June 13th, 2019
U.S. Jobs +75,000 in May, but Flat After Revisions
Article source: ConstructConnect
The latest Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records a gain of +75,000 in total U.S. jobs in May. The +75,000 month-to-month increase was the second lowest so far this year. February’s figure was worse at +56,000.
What’s hidden, however, unless one digs a little deeper, is the fact that total U.S. employment in May really didn’t increase at all. The total jobs number now being reported for May, at 151.095 million, is the same as the total jobs number that was published a month ago for April. The explanation lies in the fact that April’s number has been revised down by -75,000.
The national unemployment rate in May stayed extremely tight, at 3.6%, the same as in the previous April. The participation rate likewise remained steady, at 62.8%.
The composition of May’s +75,000 jobs performance was an interesting combination of only +8,000 in goods production, +82,000 in the private services-providing sector and -15,000 with government. The public sector’s jobs loss was at the state (-10,000) and local (-9,000) levels, as Washington made a minor upwards staffing adjustment (+4,000).
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Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, employ, employment, job, jobless, jobs, Labor, market
Comments Off on May’s Weakening in U.S. Jobs Growth and the Inverted Yield Curve
Friday, January 25th, 2019
Article source: ConstructConnect
U.S. Census Bureau workers are off the job due to Washington’s partial funding shutdown. As a result, current statistics on housing starts, retail purchases and foreign trade are not available.
This is no minor matter. It will be difficult to accurately calculate national output – i.e., the important gross domestic product (GDP) measure – without reliable data on many of its key components. GDP growth, or lack thereof, is one key determinant of Federal Reserve interest rate moves. The Fed will struggle over whether to be ‘hawkish’, ‘dovish’, or stick with neutral.
Furthermore, the ramifications of economic data omissions are not solely limited to the U.S.
The U.S. and China are engaged in a trade skirmish, with tariffs on Chinese goods entering the U.S. slated to increase to 25% from 10% at the end of March, if there is no resolution. The U.S. has been running a huge trade deficit with China for years. In many months, it has been in a range of 40% to 50% of the total U.S. merchandise trade shortfall with all nations.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, Economics, Economist, Economy, election, employ, employment, Growth, home, house, Housing, job, jobless, Labor, market, material, money, real estate, residential, shutdown, US
Comments Off on Ramifications of U.S. Shutdown Ripple outwards to China and Canada
Thursday, January 24th, 2019
Construction spending in various type-of structure categories is driven by economic circumstances within specific industrial subsectors. For example, manufacturers set the pace in industrial construction.
 Good health in the leisure and hospitality sector provides the backing for new hotel and motel work. And jobs levels in information and financial services, as well as in more rapidly expanding fields of endeavor such as computer systems and design services, establish the need for additional office space and commercial tower square footage. (See, “Shifts in Office Jobs and Implications for Commercial Tower Construction.”)
This article is the fifth in a series of seven that examines key industrial sectors to determine where they are most prominent regionally. Rankings of state strength in each industrial subsector are based on both ‘weight’ and ‘concentration’ of relevant employment. ‘Weight’ is simply the number of jobs in the industrial subsector in each state. ‘Concentration’ is each state’s number of jobs in the subsector divided by the state’s population. In effect, it’s a ‘per capita’ figure, except that it’s expressed as number of jobs per million population.
By ‘weight,’ the states with the largest populations are almost always high in the rankings. The rankings by ‘concentration,’ however, often deliver a jolt of surprise or two.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, employ, employment, Growth, job, jobs
Comments Off on Series (5 of 7): Rankings of States by Industrial Subsector Jobs – Computer Systems Design
Thursday, January 10th, 2019
Article source: ConstructConnect
The dollar volume of ConstructConnect’s ‘grand total’ construction starts in full-year 2018 was -5.0% compared with full-year 2017. The percentage change for nonresidential work was -2.0%.
How significant were the largest project initiations in those overall percentage changes? Each month, to update clients on showcase project activity, ConstructConnect publishes a Top 10 groundbreakings list. The summation of the Top 10 projects for every month in 2018 (i.e., 120 projects in total) was $85.4 billion, +1.3% versus 2017’s comparable figure of $84.2 billion.
Many of 2018’s biggest project starts are set out in two accompanying infographics and tables. While there were other type-of-structure categories with multiple extra-large projects last year, six that stood out were: high-tech data and fulfilment centers; hotels and conference centers; bridges; manufacturing and distribution centers; medical facilities; and law enforcement.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, Construction services, Economic, Economics, Economist, Economy, employ, Growth, Housing, job, jobless, Labor, market
Comments Off on U.S. 2018 Large Project Starts by Type of Structure – 2 Infographics
Monday, December 3rd, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
The latest Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records that the U.S. construction sector’s unemployment rate in October was 3.6%, lower than the national ‘headline’ rate of 3.7% for all jobs in the economy.
Since 3.7% as the national jobless level was a nearly 50-year low, for construction to have done even better was an outstanding achievement.
Also, for October 2018, the BLS calculated that construction workers’ year-over-year (y/y) wage gains were ‘richer’ than for all jobs (i.e., not just construction, but manufacturing and all manner of services work), both hourly (+4.2% versus +3.2%) and weekly (+4.5% versus +3.2%).
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Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, Construction industry, Economic, Economics, Economist, employ, employment, Growth, interest rate, job
Comments Off on Maps – Georgia Best and New Jersey Worst for Construction Jobs Growth
Friday, November 2nd, 2018
According to the latest Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the total number of jobs in the U.S. in October rose by 250,000, an outstanding gain.
Because the participation increased slightly, from 62.7% in September to 62.9% in October (i.e., more people re-entered the work force), the unemployment rate stayed the same as the month before, at 3.7%.
What’s important to remember, though, is that a 3.7% American jobless figure is a 50-year low.
According to the latest Labour Force Survey results published by Statistics Canada, total employment north of the border in October bobbed up by a relatively anemic 11,000 jobs.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Economic, Economist, Economy, employ, employment, Growth, job, jobs, market
Comments Off on Big October U.S. Jobs Gain Has Fed Interest Rate Implications; Meanwhile, Canada Quiet on the Jobs Front
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