According to the June Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), the number of open, unfilled positions in the construction industry remained unchanged despite a slowdown in housing.
The number of open jobs in the economy fell marginally from 7.71 million in May to 7.44 million in June.
This is roughly equivalent to the 7.41 million projection from a year ago, but it represents a weaker aggregate labor market.
Previous NAHB study indicated that this figure needs to fall below 8 million on a consistent basis for the Federal Reserve to proceed with interest rate cuts.
With national job openings expected to continue below 8 million, the Fed should be able to cut further despite a recent pause. There is mounting pressure on the Federal Reserve to do so.
The number of open construction sector jobs remained steady from a revised 232,000 in May to 246,000 in June.
Nonetheless, there are fewer open, unfilled construction positions than a year ago (285,000), owing to a downturn in construction/housing activity.
The figure below shows the recent decrease in the construction job openings rate, which is now around the 2019 lows.
The construction job openings rate increased to 2.9% in June, albeit it is much lower year on year than 3.4%.
In June, the construction layoff rate remained unchanged at 2%. The quits rate fell to 1.9% in June, up from 1.6% a year ago.
[Read more about this topic on Eyeonhousing.org]