WASHINGTON, DC — The development business had 423,000 job openings on the final day of October, based on an Related Builders and Contractors evaluation of knowledge from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. JOLTS defines a job opening as any unfilled place for which an employer is actively recruiting. Trade job openings decreased by 4,000 in October however are up by 25,000 from the identical time final 12 months.

“The variety of economywide job openings fell to eight.7 million in October, the bottom complete since March 2021,” mentioned ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “It is a robust indication that the demand for labor is slowing, though the availability of staff continues to be far too low to fulfill that demand. The variety of open, unfilled jobs throughout the financial system nonetheless exceeds the pre-pandemic stage by greater than 1.7 million.

“Whereas labor market tightness is easing throughout all financial segments, employee shortage stays a urgent concern for the development business,” mentioned Basu. “On the final day of October, 5.0% of development positions had been unfilled, which is effectively above the three.9% business job opening fee noticed in February 2020. With almost half of contractors intending to extend their staffing ranges over the following six months, based on ABC’s Development Confidence Index, the dearth of accessible staff will stay a headwind for the development business over the following a number of quarters.”