WASHINGTON, DC — The development business had 449,000 job openings on the final day of December, in accordance with an Related Builders and Contractors evaluation of knowledge from the U.S. 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. Business job openings decreased by 21,000 final month and are down by 39,000 from the identical time final 12 months.

“The development business averaged 445,000 job openings monthly within the fourth quarter of 2023,” stated ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “That’s the best quarterly degree on file and a powerful indication that the labor shortages which have lengthy plagued the development business stay firmly in place. With greater than half of contractors anticipating to extend their staffing ranges over the following six months, in accordance with ABC’s Building Confidence Index, the provision of employees is unlikely to fulfill demand for the primary half of 2024.

“There’s, nonetheless, some excellent news relating to employee availability,” stated Basu. “Whereas contractors are nonetheless shedding employees at a traditionally low fee, the speed at which development employees are quitting has fallen beneath 2019 ranges. That is possible a mirrored image of falling demand for labor in industries that compete with development for expertise, together with commerce, transportation and utilities, which has seen a 25% decline in job openings over the previous 12 months.”