The Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that April employment levels in 3 of the 4 multifamily-related job categories we track rose from the preliminary levels reported last month despite softening of employment growth overall.
Employment growth down from last month’s rate
The BLS reported that total seasonally adjusted non-farm employment increased by 175,000 jobs in April to 158,286,000 jobs, based on their survey of business establishments. However, March’s employment level was revised lower by 22,000 jobs, so April’s employment level is 153,000 jobs higher than the preliminary level for March reported last month.
The BLS household survey reported that the US unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 3.9 percent, reversing last month’s decline. The household survey found that the number of employed persons rose by 25,000 from that reported for last month to 161,491,000. The number of unemployed persons rose by 63,000 to 6,492,000.
The household survey also found that the number of people in the civilian labor force rose by 87,000 in April while the adult civilian population rose by 182,000. The labor force participation rate was effectively unchanged at 62.66 percent. It had been at 63.09 percent before the pandemic. Recovering that 0.43 percent decline in the labor force participation rate would bring 1.14 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 March.
Residential construction employment higher overall
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 April, usually with general contractors, was reported to be up by 2,800 jobs. In addition, the prior month’s employment level was revised higher by 6,100 jobs. Employment in this category is now 950,000 jobs, up 2.9 percent year-over-year.
Employment in residential building trades, i.e. plumbers, electricians, etc., in April was reported to fall by 1,700 jobs from March’s level. However, the March jobs figure was revised higher by 1,500 jobs. Employment in this category is now 2,407,400 jobs, 200 jobs less than reported last month. Employment in April is up 2.1 percent year-over-year.
Total April employment in these two categories of residential construction jobs combined is up fractionally from the revised level of the month before and up 2.3 percent year-over-year. It is up 0.3 percent from the preliminary level for March contained in last month’s report.
Apartment operations jobs higher
The next chart shows the history of the levels of employment since 2015 in the two property management jobs categories we track.
Employment for residential property managers in March was reported to be up by 2,600 jobs from its revised (+200 jobs) level for February to 546,400 jobs. Employment for residential property managers is up 4.5 percent year-over-year.
Employment for lessors of residential buildings in March was reported to rise by 1,800 jobs from its revised (+100 jobs) level for February to 376,300 jobs. Employment in this category is up 2.1 percent year-over-year.
Total employment in these two categories of apartment operations jobs combined was reported to be up 0.5 percent from the revised level for last month. It is up 3.5 percent year-over-year.
Revised 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 2.4 percent below trend. Residential trades employment is now 2.7 percent below trend. Residential property managers employment is 1.5 percent above trend and lessors of residential buildings employment is now 3.1 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.
