KEY POINTS
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The second half of 2025 saw significant month-to-month fluctuations in construction job counts, with sharp losses followed by large gains, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics resumed full reporting.
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Despite overall volatility, since August, engineering and civil counts have added 7,000 jobs, and residential sub-trades have shown steady improvement.
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Hourly construction wages grew by 4.4% year-on-year by the end of 2025, while material price growth slowed, and construction bid prices saw a notable increase in the fourth quarter.
Construction Labor Demand Bucks National and Seasonal Trends
The resumption of full and normal jobs reporting by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the second half (2H) of 2025 was one of the more volatile periods for construction jobs since the pandemic. Between August and December, month-to-month job counts for residential building and nonresidential sub-trades jobs gyrated substantially.
This resulted in deep total construction job losses in one month, followed immediately by big gains the next month and vice versa. Such unprecedented volatility naturally brings into question our confidence in 2H 2025 data.
Change in Level of U.S. Construction Employment. Month to Month (M-M) Change in 000’s — Total & by Categories — December 2025. Image: ConstructConnect Construction Economy Snapshot
Bright Spots in Residential and Civil Sectors
Despite this concern, certain construction sub-segments showed more reasonable behavior. Residential sub-trades jobs growth, for instance, has slowly improved since August. Engineering and civil job counts also grew modestly during 2H 2025, netting an additional 7,000 jobs since August.
Wage and Material Cost Trends
Hourly construction wages through the end of 2025 grew by 4.4% year-on-year (YoY), while material price growth slowed from over 5% in September to 3.6% by December. Importantly, construction bid price growth (YoY) moved quickly higher in the fourth quarter, rising from 0.9% in September to 2.7% in December.
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