Dive Brief:

• The construction industry as a whole added 48,100 workers last month, with almost half going to the nonresidential portion, according to Bureau Of Labor Statistics calculations.
• The breakdown was:
  •   8,300 in the nonresidential construction category
  • 13,200 in residential construction
  • 12,900 in nonresidential specialty trades
  •   3,600 in residential specialty trades
  • 10,100 in heavy and civil engineering
• Residential construction and specialty trades had the largest year-over-year job gains, 8.8% and 4.6%, respectively.
• The unemployment rate rose to 12.3% in January, compared to 11.4% in December.

Dive Insight:

Anirdan Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, had a bluntly honest assessment of the situation, saying "we simply do not know with any conviction" what is going on in the U.S. labor market. The newest data may represent a trend, or they may be attributable in part to the fact that the government collected them during a mild week in comparison with December and the rest of January. Construction unemployment went up, perhaps because the expiration of long-term jobless benefits forced people who had given up to try looking for work again.