Dive Brief:

• Along with a good overall jobs report for the U.S. economy for July, the construction industry got more good news as contractors and heavy and civil engineering companies added 9,100 jobs and residential building added 13,000.
• The industry unemployment rate fell to 7.5% nationally, which has not been seen since November 2007.
• General nonresidential employment was down 400 jobs from June, but civil and heavy companies and nonresidential specialty contractors drove the overall addition of workers.

Dive Insight:

July job growth is unusual, said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu, and the July numbers this year were the largest for the month since 1996. "While nonresidential construction’s cycle tends to lag that of the overall economy by roughly a year, gains in momentum for the U.S. economy mean that nonresidential construction is poised for better times ahead," he said. The one glum piece of analysis was that interest rates may rise, which will work against ongoing gains for the industry.