The US construction industry is larger now than it was before the pandemic

When covid-19 hit the US, builders were struggling to find skilled labor. Now the construction industry has more workers than before the pandemic, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released Apr. 1.

The recovery was led by homebuilding and the remodeling sectors, which regained all of their lost jobs at the beginning of the year and have continued to expand. The number of people working in residential construction jobs was 890,000 in March, a 6% jump from February 2020.

“Housing was a bright spot for the economy in 2020, with historically low interest rates, a shift in housing preferences to large homes, and an increased ability to live further out from urban cores increasing demand for new construction and home improvement,” said Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), in an email.

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