State Construction Unemployment Down in Every State From a Year Ago
The not seasonally adjusted national construction unemployment rate plunged 4.6% in December 2021 from a year ago, down from 9.6% to 5%, while all 50 states had lower unemployment rates over the same period, according to a state-by-state analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released by Associated Builders and Contractors. This substantial improvement occurred even as the omicron COVID-19 variant was sweeping the nation.
While not fully recovered to its pre-pandemic level, national NSA construction employment was 163,000 higher than in December 2020. Seasonally adjusted construction employment was only 96,000, or 1.3%, below its February 2020 peak, before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect the employment numbers. This beat national seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment, which, though improving, was still 2.2% below its February 2020 peak as of December 2021.