Construction employment rose by 11,000 in September 2026 to 8,364,000, according to the Employment Situation report the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on October 2. The figure is seasonally adjusted and preliminary. It is 0.1% above August and 109,000, or 1.3%, above September 2025. That makes it the highest count in the 25 months shown below, about 54,000 above the 12-month average of 8,310,000. BLS also revised August down to 8,353,000 from the 8,359,000 it first published, which cuts the August gain to 16,000 from 22,000.
Construction employment reached its highest count in 25 months
All employees, construction, thousands, seasonally adjusted
| Month | Employment (000s) | MoM change (000s) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 8,255 | 16 | 0.0% |
| Oct 2025 | 8,243 | -12 | -0.2% |
| Nov 2025 | 8,279 | 36 | 0.1% |
| Dec 2025 | 8,272 | -7 | -0.1% |
| Jan 2026 | 8,317 | 45 | 0.6% |
| Feb 2026 | 8,296 | -21 | 0.3% |
| Mar 2026 | 8,311 | 15 | 0.5% |
| Apr 2026 | 8,314 | 3 | 0.5% |
| May 2026 | 8,316 | 2 | 0.6% |
| Jun 2026 | 8,319 | 3 | 0.6% |
| Jul 2026 | 8,337 | 18 | 0.9% |
| Aug 2026 | 8,353 | 16 | 1.4% |
| Sep 2026 | 8,364 | 11 | 1.3% |
What moved
BLS described construction employment as having “changed little in September,” and noted that the industry had added an average of 10,000 jobs a month over the prior 12 months. The one construction line it named in the summary was nonresidential specialty trade contractors, up 12,300. Residential specialty trade contractors lost 7,900. Building construction added 4,200, with 3,000 of that at residential builders and 1,200 at nonresidential builders, and heavy and civil engineering added 2,600.
| Segment | Sep 2025 (000s) | Aug 2026 (000s) | Sep 2026 (000s) | Change from Aug (000s) | Change from Sep 2025 (000s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential building construction | 926.7 | 919.7 | 922.7 | 3.0 | -4.0 |
| Nonresidential building construction | 919.7 | 949.5 | 950.7 | 1.2 | 31.0 |
| Heavy and civil engineering construction | 1,184.5 | 1,208.2 | 1,210.8 | 2.6 | 26.3 |
| Residential specialty trade contractors | 2,369.1 | 2,348.2 | 2,340.3 | -7.9 | -28.8 |
| Nonresidential specialty trade contractors | 2,854.9 | 2,927.3 | 2,939.6 | 12.3 | 84.7 |
| Total construction | 8,255.0 | 8,353.0 | 8,364.0 | 11.0 | 109.0 |
The split is wider over 12 months. Add up the three nonresidential lines in the table (nonresidential building, heavy and civil, and nonresidential specialty trades) and they have gained 142,000 jobs since September 2025. The two residential lines have lost 32,800 over the same period. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors account for 84,700 of the gain on their own, a 3.0% increase to 2,939,600. Residential specialty trade contractors are down 1.2%, to 2,340,300 from 2,369,100. For the same story by metro area, see the AGC ranking of August construction employment posted on September 30.
Anyway, pay moved as well. Average hourly earnings for all construction employees were $41.69 in September, up 5 cents from August and up 4.2% from $40.01 in September 2025. Across all private employers, BLS reports a 3.0% rise over the same 12 months.
How to use this number
- Compare your headcount to your segment. A nonresidential trade contractor whose field headcount is up less than 3.0% from a year ago is growing more slowly than nonresidential specialty trades as a whole. A residential trade contractor with flat headcount is holding steady in a segment that lost 1.2% of its jobs. Use the same September-to-September window as BLS so seasonal hiring does not distort the comparison.
- Check labor escalation in bids for 2027 work. Construction hourly earnings rose 4.2% over the year. If your estimates carry a lower escalation rate on labor, compare it with your own payroll history for the same 12 months. The BLS average covers every trade, region and pay arrangement in construction, so your own crews may run above or below it.
Revisions and caveats
September is preliminary, and so is the revised August. BLS will revise both when it publishes October data on November 6, 2026. This month’s revision worked like this:
- On September 4, BLS first published August construction employment at 8,359,000, a gain of 22,000 from July.
- The October 2 release revised August to 8,353,000. July was unchanged at 8,337,000.
- The August gain is now 16,000, and September’s 11,000 is measured from the lower August figure.
BLS says monthly revisions come from reports that businesses and government agencies send in after the first estimate, and from recalculated seasonal factors. Across all industries, BLS revised July and August combined down by 60,000.
Before seasonal adjustment, construction employment fell to 8,504,000 in September from 8,553,000 in August, a drop of 49,000. The seasonally adjusted series shows a gain of 11,000, which means employers cut fewer construction jobs in September than the seasonal factors expected. (Not-seasonally-adjusted construction employment in September 2025 was 8,401,000, so the unadjusted count is also up from a year ago.)
The figures come from the Current Employment Statistics survey of employer payrolls. FRED’s series notes say the construction count includes working supervisors, craft workers, apprentices, helpers and laborers, whether they work at the site or in shops and yards on work the construction trades normally perform. The B-1 table notes that the data reflect March 2025 benchmark levels, so the history in the chart will move again when BLS applies its next annual benchmark. BLS said employment changed little in every major industry in September, which places construction’s 11,000 within the range it does not treat as a clear change from August.