Dive Brief:

• June employment figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics painted a significantly less cheery picture of construction industry hiring in June than the previous day's private-sector report from payroll processor ADP.
• The BLS showed a net of 6,600 new jobs across the various sectors, while ADP had said there were 36,000 new industry workers.
• Analyses from Associated Builders and Contractors and Associated General Contractors agreed that the construction unemployment rate was 8.2% and that figure was the best June number since 2008 and the lowest number in any month since September 2008.

Dive Insight:

It's not unusual for ADP and government hiring numbers to differ, but a six-fold difference certainly is bigger than normal. In the breakdown by ABC, nonresidential had a net gain of 700 after losses in nonresidential specialty work and heavy and civil engineering offset a lot of the gains in general nonresidential construction.