The construction industry added 64,000 job openings in July, according to the Jobs Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of openings reached 306,000, which is 77,000 higher than the figure from July 2024.

Despite the increase, Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), remains skeptical about job growth in the industry. “The construction job opening rate rose to the highest level in over a year during July,” said Basu said in a statement. “Given the ongoing decline in nonresidential construction spending [reported yesterday], however, that increase is likely attributable to immigration policy and its effects on the industry’s labor force rather than any increases in the demand for construction workers.”

Total hires were 342,000, down from 348,000 in June, while total separations, including layoffs, discharges and quits, fell to 318,000 from 356,000. Year-over-year, the number of hires increased 3,000, with separations falling by 6,000 in the same time period.

“Fewer construction workers quit their jobs in July than in any month over the past nine years, suggesting widespread concern about job security, while layoffs jumped to the highest level since Q1 of 2023,” said Basu. “That said, JOLTS data can be volatile from month to month, and it’s difficult to know the degree to which undocumented workers are or are not captured in the data.”