By Michael Stephenson, President and CEO of StrikeForce Staffing
The latest employment numbers contain a lesson for employers: an industry can be growing and shrinking at the same time.
Construction companies added 11,000 jobs in September. But the gains were concentrated entirely in nonresidential construction, while residential employers collectively eliminated positions.
According to an October 2 analysis from the Associated General Contractors of America, nonresidential construction added 16,100 jobs, while residential construction lost 4,900.
For hiring managers, the distinction matters. A single national employment figure cannot explain where demand for skilled workers is growing, which employers are competing for talent, or where recruiting strategies need to change.
Why Is Construction Hiring Moving in Different Directions?
Construction employment has increased by 109,000 positions over the past year, according to the October 2 report.
But the growth has not been evenly distributed.
Nonresidential construction employment increased 2.9 percent over the year, adding 142,000 positions. Residential construction employment, meanwhile, declined 1 percent, shedding 32,800 positions.
Within nonresidential construction, specialty trade contractors accounted for 12,300 new jobs in September.
These employers include businesses performing specialized construction activities such as electrical work, mechanical systems, plumbing and other trade-specific services.
The implication is significant.
An employer searching for electricians, equipment technicians or construction supervisors may face a very different recruiting environment depending on the projects those workers support.
And that means a hiring strategy built around the broader industry's performance may miss what's happening in the specific labor market that matters.
The Skilled-Trades Market Remains Competitive
The divergence in hiring comes against another important backdrop: experienced construction workers remain difficult to recruit.
The number of unemployed people actively seeking work who had recent construction experience fell to approximately 359,000 in September, down 11 percent from a year earlier.
The unemployment rate among these workers declined to 3.5 percent.
Meanwhile, average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory construction employees reached $39.20, up 4.3 percent over the year.
That's faster wage growth than the 3.3 percent recorded for production and nonsupervisory workers across the broader private sector.
For employers, these numbers challenge a common assumption.
A slower national job market doesn't automatically mean specialized workers are easier to find.
A business may be experiencing fewer applications for administrative positions while still struggling to recruit experienced tradespeople.
Both realities can exist simultaneously.
Stop Treating Skilled Trades as One Talent Pool
Consider two employers.
One is a residential construction company looking for carpenters.
The other is a contractor working on commercial electrical systems.
Both operate in construction. Both need skilled labor.
But they may face different demand patterns, project timelines, compensation expectations and candidate availability.
Recruiters should therefore segment their hiring strategies by more than industry.
They need to understand the particular trade, project type, geographic market and experience level.
A candidate who has spent years working on residential projects may have relevant experience for commercial construction, but employers still need to assess differences in safety requirements, technical complexity, certifications and working conditions.
The objective isn't to assume workers are interchangeable.
It's to understand where genuine overlap exists.
How Should Employers Respond?
Start by identifying which parts of the market are expanding.
For construction employers, that could mean examining nonresidential development, infrastructure projects, industrial facilities and local project pipelines.
Then evaluate how those trends affect specific positions.
Are electrical contractors competing for workers in your region?
Are qualified supervisors receiving multiple offers?
Are compensation expectations changing?
Are candidates leaving residential work for commercial projects?
These are questions that national employment figures cannot answer on their own.
Employers should also examine the speed of their hiring process.
If a qualified tradesperson is available today, requiring several rounds of interviews over multiple weeks could mean losing that candidate.
A streamlined process should still verify qualifications, safety knowledge and experience. But unnecessary delays are especially costly when the available labor pool is limited.
Finally, employers should consider their existing workforce.
Can experienced employees be trained for more specialized assignments?
Are apprenticeship partnerships producing candidates with the capabilities the business actually needs?
Could better workforce scheduling reduce pressure to recruit additional employees immediately?
These decisions should follow operational requirements, not broad assumptions about the economy.
Why This Matters
Construction's September employment numbers demonstrate why hiring decisions require more granular information.
The national industry added jobs, but one major segment contracted while another expanded.
For employers, the question is not simply whether construction is hiring.
It's which construction markets are hiring, for which skills, and under what conditions.
Recruiting strategies that reflect those distinctions are more likely to identify the right candidates and avoid wasted effort.
Hiring Signal
Don't recruit according to the industry's headline number. Recruit according to the specific labor market competing for your next employee.
CTA
Review your five hardest-to-fill positions.
For each, identify the relevant trade, project type, local labor market and closest competing employers.
Then determine whether your current recruiting approach reflects those conditions.
How StrikeForce Can Help
StrikeForce helps employers navigate specialized hiring markets by connecting organizations with qualified technical, operational and skilled-trades professionals. Understanding where talent demand is shifting can help employers refine recruiting strategies and make more informed workforce decisions.