The employment levels for the start of the year were steady according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on job number creation in January ‘25, with a gain of 143,000 new positions. (Within the 130-150,000 increase range estimated needed on a monthly basis to stay-up with growing demographics). With respect to the construction job market, the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment was measured at 6.5 percent for January, which is slightly lower than the 2024 level for the same month. [This month’s unemployment figure is down 0.4 basis points compared to last January’s level of 6.9%; but with a large 1.3 percent monthly jump higher vs. December ‘24]. Notwithstanding the slight numeric changes, overall employment in construction again changed little in January taking into account the typical seasonal slowdown vs. the monthly trend-lines during the year.
The overall U.S. unemployment level fell another one-tenth to 4.0 percent. (matched by an “Unemployed persons” drop of 0.1 to 6.8 million per the government count). During month the “labor force participation rate” ticked up 0.1 to 62.6 percent. [NOTE: The “labor force participation” rate “typically” works inversely to the overall unemployment figures. Meaning: as it deteriorates/gets worse or smaller, it actually is counted as improving unemployment (i.e., people leaving the workforce are no longer counted as unemployed by the DOL). The “employment to population ratio” also went up 0.1 basis points back to 60.1 percent. [Both these measures haven’t reached their pre-Covid levels yet; if people were actually seeking jobs, the unemployment rate would be approximately 5.0% ]. Average hourly earnings continued to increase, at another five-tenths of a percent to $30.84 for private sector production and nonsupervisory employees.
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