Builders looking for crews got a mixed reading Tuesday, Sept. 29. Open construction jobs fell sharply in August, but not because the labor shortage eased — the vacancies are still running well above last year, and the competition for workers has moved to data centers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for August, released Tuesday morning, put total openings across the economy at 7.1 million, a rate of 4.3% and little changed from July. Hires held at 5.2 million, separations at 5.1 million, quits at 3.1 million and layoffs and discharges at 1.6 million. Nothing in the topline broke.
Construction openings drop 48,000
Inside the industry detail, construction openings fell to 251,000 in August from 299,000 in July, according to an analysis of the release published the same day by Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders. That is still above the 213,000 openings posted in August 2025.
The construction job openings rate fell to 2.9% in August, up from 2.5% a year earlier. The hiring rate slipped to 3.7%, down from 4.1% a year ago. The layoff rate was 1.3% and the quits rate was flat at 2.2%.
Dietz put the broader economy’s openings at 7.08 million, below the 7.34 million recorded a year earlier, and wrote that holding in the 7 million range “indicates that the labor market remains resilient to recent macro challenges, including higher energy prices.”
Where the workers are going
The number worth sitting with is not the monthly drop but the year-over-year gain in vacancies at a time when homebuilding is contracting. Dietz wrote that “the current level of open jobs is down from three years ago due to declines in construction activity, particularly in housing,” while strength in subsectors including data center construction — which he put at up 46% year over year — “is creating demand for construction workers.”
That split has been visible in the trade data all year. RealtyWire reported in August that construction openings jumped 36% as data center work pulled labor away from housing, and in mid-September that one in six contractors now report data center work in their backlog. A residential builder competing for framers, electricians and concrete crews is bidding against projects with different economics and deeper pockets.
Dietz was direct about the second pressure on supply: “increasing immigration enforcement actions is having an effect on worker availability, which is also contributing to the number of open positions.” He added that the industry “faces challenges in terms of no shows at work sites related to immigration enforcement.”
The openings-rate chart in his analysis shows the shape of the cycle: a declining trend in construction vacancies from 2023 to 2025 after the Fed tightened, then a renewed rise, with what he described as significant month-to-month noise. August’s 48,000-job drop sits inside that noise; the 38,000 year-over-year increase in openings is the signal.
What it means for costs
Labor is one of the three inputs a builder can actually forecast, alongside land and materials, and a market with more open jobs than a year ago is a market where wages are defended rather than discounted. That lands on top of financing costs that have moved sharply against the industry: Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed average reached 7.03% for the week ending Sept. 24, and the 10-year Treasury yield closed at 5.24% on Sept. 28, its highest since 2007 per the Treasury Department’s daily yield curve.
Cheaper labor is the one relief valve a slower homebuilding market would normally open. August’s numbers say it is not opening, because the workers who would have been available are being absorbed by a construction boom that has nothing to do with housing.
The next reading on the same dynamic comes Friday, when BLS releases the monthly employment report and its construction payroll detail. More construction and commercial real estate coverage is here.
