Construction Quits Hit 190K in September, a 3-Year High
Construction employers lost 190,000 workers to quits in September, the most since the first half of 2023, Construction Dive reports, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Nov. 3.
Market Impact
Open construction jobs reached 298,000 on the last day of September, up 13.7% from August and 44.7% from a year earlier. Anirban Basu, chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), said the jump in quits could signal a tightening labor market.
Layoffs tell the other half of the story. Industrywide layoffs are down 56,000 year over year, and the layoff rate remains lower than in any month on record before 2020, according to Basu. Contractors are holding onto workers while still struggling to fill open positions.
Macrina Wilkins, director of market insights for the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), said the hiring rate and job openings rate both rose year over year, though hiring remains low by historical standards. She tied the openings surge to strong demand for data centers, power projects and select other nonresidential work, while other sectors stay weak. “Contractors continue to need workers for these projects, but many are struggling to find qualified applicants,” she told Construction Dive.
Wilkins called the rise in quits “noteworthy” and listed possible causes: workers moving to more in-demand sectors, seeking different working conditions, or leaving because of immigration enforcement. She noted the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) does not explain why workers leave.
Margins are the pressure point. One in four ABC members expects profit margins to contract over the next six months. Basu warned that renewed worker shortages will push labor costs up, compounding high borrowing costs and ongoing materials price escalation.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Review pay before Q1 2027 hiring. Benchmark wage bands, per diem and crew-lead pay against what competitors offer in your market before the new year. The source does not say pay is driving the quits, so this is our inference. Still, with openings up 44.7% year over year, your crew leads are the likeliest targets for recruiters.
- Prioritize retention in data center and power work. Wilkins said demand is strongest there and qualified applicants are scarce. Electrical, civil and mechanical subs staffing those jobs (our trade inference) should lock in foremen and journeymen on active packages before bidding the next ones.
- Build labor escalation into new bids. Basu expects upward pressure on labor costs on top of high borrowing costs and materials escalation. For subcontract packages priced in Q1 2027, add labor escalation language or shorter bid validity periods rather than absorbing the risk.
- Run exit interviews on your own September and October quits. National data does not show why workers left. Sort your departures into pay, working conditions, move to another sector, or immigration-related, then fix the largest category first.
- Plan around the margin squeeze. With one in four ABC members expecting thinner margins over the next six months, price any retention raises into your next round of estimates. Do not wait for year-end reviews.
