Construction employment increased by 5,000 jobs in November following an increase of 30,000 jobs in October, according to www.agc.org.
The construction industry unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent. The national unemployment rate for all industries was unchanged at 3.7 percent.
The construction sector has added 282,000 net new jobs during the past 12 months.
Hourly earnings in the industry averaged $30.28 in November, which is an increase of 3.7 percent from a year earlier. Average hourly earnings in construction were 10.7 percent higher than the average for all nonfarm private-sector jobs, which rose 3.1 percent during the past year to $27.35.
"Demand for construction remains strong, and pay is rising faster than in the overall economy," says Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. "But contractors are having increasing difficulty finding qualified workers as industry unemployment slides to historic lows."
