Employment Projections
The construction industry contains a rapidly growing and changing population of workers spread across a variety of trades, states, and demographics. Projections help to predict changes in industry composition, including which jobs are expected to grow while others shrink, creating better focus on areas in safety and health most needing attention.
This interactive dashboard highlights data for construction worker projections by state, occupation, and construction subsector. There are no page-level filters. There are three chart level filters, including the Projection period, Major subsector, and Occupation filters which update both their respective charts and the bolded and underlined key findings.
Following the interactive dashboard, you will find more information on the data sources, definitions, chart notes, a downloadable data file, and recommended citation. This interactive data dashboard corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming PDF version of the Construction Chart Book-7th edition, which will be published this summer. Data will be updated annually as available. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected].
About the Data
Data come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections Tables, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and Projections Central.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Employment Projections Tables:
- 9, 2023-33 Industry-occupation matrix data, by industry https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/industry-occupation-matrix-industry.htm
- 10, 2023-33 Occupational separations and openings, projected 2023-33 https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/occupational-separations-and-openings.htm
- Occupational separations and openings are not available by specific industry, and as a result are not limited to Construction (NAICS 23) alone.
- 1, Employment by major industry sector https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/employment-by-major-industry-sector.htm
- S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024). Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). https://www.bls.gov/jlt/data.htm
- Openings, new hires, and separations estimates are all seasonally adjusted.
Projections Central. (2024). State Employment Projections https://projectionscentral.org/home:
- Short-Term Projections 2023-2025 https://projectionscentral.org/shortterm
- Long-Term Projections 2022-2032 https://projectionscentral.org/longterm
- Data for both long and short-term projections are unavailable for the state of Hawaii due to lack of compatible state projections data.
Definitions and Chart Notes
Definitions
- Detailed subsector – 4-to-5-digit NAICS codes within construction (under NAICS 23).
- Major subsector – 3-digit NAICS codes within construction (under NAICS 23).
- Openings – The sum of net occupational employment change and occupational separations. Workers who change jobs within an occupation do not generate openings since there is no net change in openings from this movement.
- Separations – the sum of labor force exits and occupational transfers.
- Labor force exits – workers who are leaving an occupation or exiting the labor force entirely.
- Occupational transfers – workers who transfer to a different occupation. These represent permanent separations, not temporary movements where a worker is expected to return to the same occupation in the future.
Chart Notes
Map and Bar Chart by Occupation: Data shown is for construction and extraction occupations and is not specific to the construction industry. Common construction trades are shown, but extraction workers may be included.