Residential Building Wages See Fastest Growth in More Than Five Years

Residential building workers’ wage growth accelerated to 9.0% in June. This marks the fastest year-over-year (YOY) growth rate since December 2018. After a 0.3% increase in June 2023, the YOY growth rate for residential building worker wages have been trending upward over the past year.

The ongoing skilled labor shortage in the construction labor market and lingering inflation impacts account for the recent acceleration in wage growth. However, demand for construction labor is weakening as interest rates remain elevated. As mentioned in the latest JOLTS blog, the number of open construction sector jobs shifted notably lower from 366,000 in May to 295,000 in June. Nonetheless, the ongoing skilled labor shortage continues to challenge the construction sector.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, average hourly earnings for residential building workers* was $32.28 per hour in June 2024, increasing 9.0% from $29.62 per hour a year ago. This was 16.2% higher than the manufacturing’s average hourly earnings of $27.79 per hour, 10.6% higher than transportation and warehousing ($29.18 per hour), and 11.1% lower than mining and logging ($36.33 per hour).

Note: *Data used in this post relate to production and nonsupervisory workers in the residential building industry. This group accounts for approximately two-thirds of the total employment of the residential building industry.