Dive Brief:

• The latest federal figures on employment said the construction industry put 17,000 more people on the payrolls during November.
• Associated Builders and Contractors, a group that focuses on nonresidential construction, said that 7,700 of the new jobs came in that portion of the industry.
• The hiring resulted in a national construction unemployment rate of 8.6%, which compared favorably with 12.2% in November 2012.

Dive Insight:

Within the overall construction improvement, the biggest contributor was nonresidential specialty trades, where 5,400 more people went to work. Employers in Nonresidential building construction employment took on 2,300 more employees, and Residential building construction employment was up 1,300 jobs.