The construction industry added 33,000 jobs in April, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the past 12 months, the industry has added 256,000 jobs.
[Related: March construction jobs bounce back after disappointing February]
However, those gains were heavily concentrated among nonresidential specialty trades. Over 25,000 jobs in April were among specialty trade contractors, 88% of which were in nonresidential trades. Almost a third of new jobs were in heavy construction.
As a matter of fact, residential building was the only subset of construction jobs to report a decline, falling by 2,500. An increase in residential specialty trades resulted in a net gain of just 600 residential construction jobs.
Overall, unemployment fell by less than one percentage point to 3.6% in April. BLS noted this is the lowest rate since December 1969.
Hourly earnings increased slightly, up 13 cents since March to an average $30.60. Year-over-year, average hourly earnings are up over 3%.
Average weekly hours fell slightly, from 39.4 in March to 39.1 last month.
[Related: 1 easy and overlooked way to increase sales]
