Residential Building Workers’ Wage Growth Currently on a Downward Trend

After experiencing significant increases for over a year, average hourly pay for residential construction workers has been rising at a slower pace in May.

Salary growth has fallen below or near 3% since its peak in 2021.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average hourly earnings (AHE) for residential building employees in May 2023 were $29.87, up 2% from $29.16 the previous year.

This was 14.3% higher than the average hourly earnings in manufacturing ($26.14), 8.3% higher than transportation and warehousing, and 12.9% lower than mining and logging.

In the first five months of 2023, average hourly earnings for residential building employees climbed at a slower rate than in the previous two years.

Year-on-year growth reached 8% in October 2021, the highest rate since February 2019, but it is now showing signs of slowing down. Moreover, the construction labor market, which was expected to peak in 2022, is now in a stop-start cooling phase as the housing market adjusts to increased loan rates.