As if getting construction loans isn’t hard enough, developers increasingly have to fight to find construction workers.
The number of construction job openings in the U.S. rose to a seasonally adjusted 225,000 in June, up from 163,000 in May, according to the federal labor department — the highest number since September 2016.
Meanwhile the number of construction job openings as a share of total employment rose to 3.2 percent in June, up from 2.3 percent in May, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Although the labor shortage partly reflects a rise in remodeling across the country, it also highlights that many of the former construction workers who left the workforce in the wake of the 2008 crisis have not (yet) returned.
As The Real Deal previously reported, the Trump administration’s efforts to curb immigration could also hurt the construction industry. [WSJ] — Konrad Putzier