Construction hiring booms in overall strong jobs report

In March, nonfarm payroll employment in the United States surged by 303,000, surpassing the average monthly gain of 231,000 over the past year. This growth was fueled by increases across various sectors. Health care notably added 72,000 jobs, outpacing its average monthly gain of 60,000 in the previous year. Government employment also saw a substantial uptick, with 71,000 new jobs added in March. Furthermore, the construction industry flourished, adding 39,000 jobs, which doubled the average monthly gain of 19,000 over the past year, particularly driven by expansions in nonresidential specialty trade contractors. Additionally, employment in leisure and hospitality rose by 49,000 in March, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels seen in February 2020, with an average monthly growth of 37,000 jobs over the past year.

Regarding the most recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary from the BLS, little change was noted month over month, with approximately 8.8 million job openings. Among sectors, finance and insurance saw the largest month-over-month increase with 126,000 job openings. Furthermore, there were an estimated 5.8 million new hires recorded in February, with minimal change from the preceding month.

At Professional Search Advisors, our observations indicate that hiring momentum will likely persist and remain competitive as we move into the summer of 2024. Despite some caution surrounding an election year, several hiring managers have expressed no intention of slowing down and even anticipate ramping up hiring efforts once the Fed initiates interest rate cuts.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.html

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf