The Employment Situation Report for February from the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that employment in property management rose while residential construction employment fell fractionally compared to the revised levels of the month before.
Overall employment growth positive but slower
The BLS reported that total seasonally adjusted non-farm employment increased by 275,000 jobs in February to 157,808,000 jobs, based on their survey of business establishments. However, January’s employment level was revised 167,000 jobs lower, so February’s employment level is only 108,000 jobs higher than the preliminary level for January reported last month.
The BLS household survey reported that the US unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 3.9 percent. The household survey found that the number of employed persons fell by 184,000 from that reported for last month to 160,968,000. The number of unemployed persons rose by 334,000 to 6,458,000.
The household survey also found that the number of people in the civilian labor force rose by 150,000 in February while the adult civilian population rose by 171,000. The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 62.5 percent. It had been at 63.4 percent before the pandemic. Recovering that 0.9 percent decline in the labor force participation rate would bring 2.41 million more people into the workforce.
Tracking multifamily employment
The BLS reported more detailed employment information on four job categories of interest to the multifamily industry. These are employment as residential construction workers, as specialty trades within residential construction, as residential property managers and as lessors of residential buildings. As usual, some of the data is reported with a month delay, so the latest figures for the latter two categories are for the month of January.
Residential construction employment is mixed
The first chart shows the history of the levels of employment in the two residential construction jobs categories we track since 2015.
Employment in residential building construction in February, usually with general contractors, was reported to be down by 200 jobs. In addition, the prior month’s employment level was revised lower by 2,200 jobs. Employment in this category is now 936,000 jobs, up 1.0 percent year-over-year.
Employment in residential building trades, i.e. plumbers, electricians, etc., in February was reported to be down by 1,000 jobs from January’s level. However, the January jobs figure was revised higher by 1,600 jobs. Employment in this category is now 2,394,900 jobs. Employment in February is up 2.0 percent year-over-year.
Total December employment in these two categories of residential construction jobs combined is down less than 0.1 percent from the revised level of the month before and up 1.7 percent year-over-year. It is down 0.5 percent from the preliminary level for January contained in last month’s report.
Property management jobs increase
The next chart shows the history of the levels of employment in the two property management jobs categories we track since 2015.
Employment for residential property managers in January was reported to be up by 1,800 jobs from its revised (-1,400 jobs) level for December to 541,000 jobs. Employment for residential property managers is up 3.9 percent year-over-year.
Employment for lessors of residential buildings in January was reported to rise by 2,400 jobs from its revised (+800 jobs) level for December to 373,700 jobs. Employment in this category is up 1.4 percent year-over-year.
Total employment in these two categories of property management jobs combined was reported to be up 0.5 percent from the revised level for last month. It is up 2.9 percent year-over-year.
Tracking relative growth
The final chart, below, presents the employment data in a different format. It normalizes the employment levels in all four jobs categories to a reading of 100 for January 2015. It also provides trend lines for the growth in each of the categories of employment based on the period from January 2015 through February 2020.
Residential building construction employment is now 0.5 percent below trend. Residential trades employment is now 0.1 percent above trend. Residential property managers employment is 1.8 percent above trend and lessors of residential buildings employment is now 2.3 percent below trend.
The numbers given in the Employment Situation report are seasonally adjusted and are subject to revision. It is common for small adjustments to be made in subsequent reports, particularly to the data for the most recent month. The current Employment Situation report can be found here.
