The Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that overall employment growth continued to be strong in December. In addition, the employment levels all 4 multifamily-related job categories we track showed increases from the revised levels reported for last month.
Overall employment climbs
The BLS reported that total seasonally adjusted non-farm employment increased by 256,000 jobs to 159,536,000 jobs in December, based on their survey of business establishments. However, last month’s employment gain was revised from 227,000 jobs to 212,000 jobs as November’s employment level was revised lower and October’s was revised higher. October’s abysmal jobs gain of 12,000 jobs is now reported as a still weak 43,000 jobs after revisions.
The employment levels for recent months as given in the last three employment reports are illustrated in the first chart, below, based on the survey of business establishments. Generally, each report includes data for the current month and revised data for the previous two months. The chart shows that revisions to the overall employment levels in this month’s report were relatively minor compared to last month’s report.
The BLS household survey reported that the US unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.1 percent. The household survey found that the number of employed persons rose by 478,000 from that reported for last month to 161,661,000. The number of unemployed persons fell by 235,000 to 6,886,000.
The household survey also found that the number of people in the civilian labor force rose by 243,000 in December while the adult civilian population rose by 175,000. The labor force participation rate rose to 62.51 percent. It had been at 63.33 percent before the pandemic. Recovering that 0.82 percent decline in the labor force participation rate would bring 2.21 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 was reported with a one month delay, so the latest figures for the latter two categories are for the month of November.
Residential construction employment rises
The next 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 December, usually with general contractors, was reported to be up by 3,500 jobs. However, the prior month’s employment level was revised lower by 600 jobs so reported employment in this category is 2,900 jobs higher than the preliminary value reported last month. Employment in this category is now 960,500 jobs, up 2.9 percent year-over-year.
Employment in residential building trades, i.e. plumbers, electricians, etc., in December was reported to be up by 500 jobs from last month’s level. In addition, the November jobs figure was revised higher by 1,400 jobs so employment in this category is 1,900 jobs higher than the level reported last month. Employment in residential building trades is now 2,418,100 jobs, up 1.0 percent year-over-year.
Total December employment in these two categories of residential construction jobs combined is up 0.12 percent from the revised level of the month before and up 1.5 percent year-over-year. It is up 0.14 percent from the preliminary level for November contained in last month’s report.
Property management jobs up after revisions
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 November was reported to be up by 400 jobs from its revised (-800 jobs) level for October to 558,100 jobs. Employment for residential property managers is therefore down from the levels reported last month. However, it is up 4.0 percent year-over-year.
Employment for lessors of residential buildings in November was reported to be up 400 jobs from the revised (-600 jobs) level for October at 378,000 jobs. Employment in this category is up 1.8 percent year-over-year.
Total employment growth in these two categories of apartment operations jobs combined was reported to be up 0.09 percent from the revised level for last month and 3.1 percent year-over-year. Employment is up 0.06 percent from the preliminary level for October contained in last month’s report.
Illustrating trends
The final chart, below, presents the employment data in a different format. It normalizes the employment levels in each of the 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 3.4 percent below trend. Residential trades employment is now 4.3 percent below trend. Residential property managers employment is 1.8 percent above trend and lessors of residential buildings employment is now 3.4 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.
