Suburban and rural communities rely on residential construction employment. According to an analysis by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) construction employment data, there is a major gap in reliance on the construction industry between major metros and rural communities.
This is more prominent in the West, with home building accounting for a major share of the local economy than it does nationally in 92.6% of counties in Oregon, 91.3% in Washington and 89.5% in Utah.
This comes after residential construction employment continues to decline for the 15th year in a row. This is not a micro problem of the current geopolitical climate, materials cost of the labor market, but a substantial reflection of how the U.S. is currently underbuilding.
Overall, these findings highlight the uneven geography of residential construction employment,” said Jing Fu, Ph.D., the senior director of forecasting and analysis at NAHB. “While large metropolitan cores have broader and more diversified labor markets, rural communities and outlying suburban counties remain more reliant on home building as a source of local jobs.
