The Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that March employment levels all 4 of the multifamily-related job categories we track rose from the preliminary levels reported last month.
Blowout month for overall employment
The BLS reported that total seasonally adjusted non-farm employment increased by 303,000 jobs in March to 158,133,000 jobs, based on their survey of business establishments. Unlike last month’s report, where a strong jobs growth figure was aided by a downward revision to the prior month’s employment level, in the current report February’s employment level was revised higher by 22,000 jobs. March’s reported employment level is 325,000 jobs higher than the preliminary level for February reported last month.
The BLS household survey reported that the US unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 3.8 percent. The household survey found that the number of employed persons rose by 498,000 from that reported for last month to 161,466,000. The number of unemployed persons fell by 29,000 to 6,429,000.
The household survey also found that the number of people in the civilian labor force rose by 469,000 in March while the adult civilian population rose by 173,000. The labor force participation rate was rose 0.13 percentage points to 62.67 percent. It had been at 63.09 percent before the pandemic. Recovering that 0.42 percent decline in the labor force participation rate would bring 1.13 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 February.
Residential construction employment has strong month
The first chart shows the history of the levels of employment since 2015 in the two construction jobs categories we track.
Employment in residential building construction in March, usually with general contractors, was reported to be up by 5,500 jobs. However, the prior month’s employment level was revised lower by 400 jobs. Employment in this category is now 941,100 jobs, up 1.7 percent year-over-year.
Employment in residential building trades, i.e. plumbers, electricians, etc., in March was reported to be up by 8,900 jobs from February’s level. In addition, the February jobs figure was revised higher by 3,800 jobs. Employment in this category is now 2,407,600 jobs. Employment in March is up 2.7 percent year-over-year.
Total December employment in these two categories of residential construction jobs combined is up 0.4 percent from the revised level of the month before and up 2.4 percent year-over-year. It is up 0.5 percent from the preliminary level for February contained in last month’s report.
Apartment operations jobs increase again
The next chart shows the history of the levels of employment since 2015 in the two multifamily jobs categories we track.
Employment for residential property managers in February was reported to be up by 2,500 jobs from its revised (+100 jobs) level for January to 543,600 jobs. Employment for residential property managers is up 4.0 percent year-over-year.
Employment for lessors of residential buildings in February was reported to rise by 800 jobs from its revised (-100 jobs) level for December to 374,400 jobs. Employment in this category is up 1.7 percent year-over-year.
Total employment in these two categories of apartment operations jobs combined was reported to be up 0.4 percent from the revised level for last month. It is up 3.0 percent year-over-year.
Growth approaches trend
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 0.2 percent below trend. Residential trades employment is now 0.4 percent above trend. Residential property managers employment is 2.1 percent above trend and lessors of residential buildings employment is now 2.2 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.
