The U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.2%, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is overall better than the 133,000 jobs expected by economists, but the numbers are slightly down from the 185,000 jobs added the month prior. The construction industry fared well by adding 11,000 jobs this past month, which showed year-over-year growth of 143,000 jobs and a 1.7% available jobs increase for the industry.
Construction Jobs Stay Consistent While Spending Decreases
Construction unemployment was higher than the national average at 5.6%. The reason for this seems to have multiple factors, including uncertainty in hiring for new projects with the inconsistency in the administration’s economic policy, the rising cost of production and changes in government funding priorities. Nonresidential construction added 8,000, with nonresidential specialty trade increasing the most with 4,900 positions.
Specialty trade contractors, for both residential and nonresidential, added 9,000 positions, making up the largest portion of the total 11,000 job growth in the construction industry. Contractors that primarily work in nonresidential construction added 4,900 workers, with residential adding 4,100.
Waiting for the Long-Term Impacts of a Low Firing, Low Hiring Market
Economists characterize the 2025 market so far as having low firings and low hirings, which will eventually start to create more long-term effects. The uncertainty of the administration’s policies may make it hard for companies to feel confident in investing in new employees and expanding growth opportunities if they don’t have a sense of where the market is heading.
This can be seen in the decrease of 0.5% in nonresidential construction spending in March, compared to the record-high spending in February, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis. 11 out of the 16 nonresidential construction subcategories saw declines in spending. Private nonresidential construction spending decreased 0.8% and public nonresidential dropped 0.2%. Data centers were an outliner to this trend, as one of the most prolific areas of growth still happening in the nonresidential construction market.
Some Job Gains in Certain Sectors as Federal Continues to Decline
There were an additional 29,000 roles added to the transportation and warehousing sectors as some businesses stockpiled foreign goods in preparation for pending tariffs. Even with the job rate holding steady, other market indicators were down, such as hourly earnings only growing 0.17% instead of the 0.3% predicted, people unemployed for over 27 weeks reached a pandemic-level 23.5% and the medium time of unemployment grew to 10.4 weeks.
The healthcare industry gained 50,600 jobs this past month, which is overall consistent with its average monthly growth of 52,000 over the past year. The financial sector also grew, gaining 14,000 jobs.
The federal government lost 9,000 jobs last month and is down by 26,000 since the beginning of the year, reflecting the cuts made by the administration. Workers on paid leave or still receiving severance pay still count as employed, so the number of workers no longer working is likely lower than this. State government jobs increased by 6,000 and local government by 13,000.
Some economists are saying April is likely the last month of data not to be impacted by tariffs and tariff-related uncertainty, though some argue the impact may not be felt until after May since employers could still be benefiting from the inventory buildup prior to the tariffs.
