The Impact of COVID-19 on Construction Employment

A seasoned construction executive with 15 years of experience in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, market, Ted Vitale serves at a leading construction firm, where he provides construction management services to various sectors. Ted Vitale is passionate about staying on top of the latest trends in the construction industry.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction industry and virtually all other sectors in the US took significant hits. Two months after the US government declared the coronavirus a public health emergency in January 2020, the US construction sector lost roughly 11 million jobs. Thanks to the industry’s resilience and rising demand for residential construction, among other factors, the industry saw the restoration of 99.8 percent of the lost jobs by the end of 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The construction industry experienced inconsistent job gains in 2021, adding only 160,000 jobs and ending up with 88,000 fewer jobs than pre-pandemic levels. Construction unemployment dropped significantly from 9.4 percent in January 2021 to 5.0 percent in December 2021. Job openings also fluctuated throughout the year, ranging from a low of 242,000 to a high of 453,000 in October 2021.

One issue that has continued despite the industry’s resilience is a labor shortage. The pandemic aggravated a labor shortage that has existed in the industry since the Great Recession of 2008. A notable contributory factor is the rate of retiring individuals in the industry, which is constantly outstripping skilled labor onboarding. Younger workers require additional training to perform their roles effectively, and proper onboarding takes time.