Dive Brief:
- Construction job openings slowed to begin 2026, with the industry counting 231,000 open positions on the last day of January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- That represented a month-to-month drop of 14,000 open jobs from December and 1,000 fewer open positions year to year compared to January 2025. Of all construction jobs, 2.7% went unfilled at the end of the first month of the year.
- Construction economists say the data indicates the hiring environment has been stable but that firms have maintained a cautious attitude toward adding a significant number of workers in the face of economic uncertainties.
Dive Insight:
Construction employers hired 349,000 new workers for jobs in January, accounting for 4.2% of all positions in the industry. That represented significant growth, but economists still urged caution.
“While construction hiring accelerated in January, rising to the fastest rate since the first half of 2025, that’s unfortunately not saying much,” Anirban Basu, chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors, said in a release. “The industry’s hiring rate is still slower than at any point between the start of the data series in 2001 and the end of 2019.”
Meanwhile, the rate at which construction workers quit or were laid off held steady at 1.7% and 2%, respectively, said Macrina Wilkins, director of market insights for the Associated General Contractors of America.
“The combination of low layoffs and fewer voluntary quits suggests contractors are holding on to workers even as hiring demand remains moderate,” Wilkins told Construction Dive via email.
Early data from 2026 indicated construction began the year with less momentum than in 2025. As megaprojects in the booming data center and healthcare sectors thrive, activity in the commercial and institutional segments has slowed down. Meanwhile, lingering questions about tariffs and input costs continue to put pressure on the sector.
For now, contractors appear to be holding onto their crews, though they have consistently been pushing their plans to hire more workers further into the future, according to Basu.
“Contractors remain confident that their staffing levels will expand over the next six months, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, although that confidence has remained intact for much of the past several years while hiring has remained subdued,” said Basu.
