Job numbers in April maintained the pace of growth with another sizable move nearly identical to March, at 428,000 new positions according the latest Labor Department figures. (Again, this is more than 2.5x above the 130-150,000 estimated increase needed on a monthly basis to stay-up with growing demographics). The non-seasonally adjusted construction unemployment dropped to 4.6 percent in April, consistent with improving seasonal weather trends. [The new figure is down 1.4 basis points vs. March ‘22 level; while being down by 3.1 points from the  pandemic/shutdown impacted 7.7% figure of last April 2021].  Overall, employment in construction is consist with normal seasonal upward job trends in April.  

The overall unemployment figure remained at 3.6 percent. (“Unemployed persons” also slipped to 5.9 million per the government count).  The “labor force participation rate” decreased to 62.2 percent. [NOTE: The “labor force participation” rate “typically” works inversely to the overall unemployment figures. Meaning: as it deteriorates/gets worse or smaller, it actually is counted as improving unemployment (i.e., people leaving the workforce are no longer counted as unemployed by the DOL). The “employment to population ratio” experienced also experienced a slight decreased down 0.1 to 60.0 percent.  Average hourly earnings have continued their long steady incremental climb, now standing at $27.12 for private sector production and nonsupervisory employees.  In April, 7.7 percent of employed persons worked remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic/shutdowns, off from 10.0 percent in March. 

SEE Workforce Statistics  Chart