April Job Increases Spread Across Fewer States Compared to March

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonfarm payroll employment increased in 26 states and the District of Columbia, was unchanged in two states, and decreased in 22 states in April 2018 compared to March 2018. Over the month of March, jobs rose across 34 states, but declined in seven, with nine states flat. Although job growth was more geographically expansive over the month of March relative to the month of April, the average number of jobs created over the smaller number of increasing states in April was greater, 6,811 jobs created over the 26 states and DC in April relative to 4,912 jobs created over the 34 expanding states in March. Nationwide, the pace of monthly job growth in April, 164,000, was faster than the increase in March, 103,000. Year-over-year, 48 states and the District of Columbia increased in employment while two states, Alaska and North Dakota, lost payroll employment during this time.

In the construction sector specifically, which includes both residential and nonresidential construction, across the 44 states which reported construction sector jobs data, 27 states had an increase in April, 15 states reported a decline, and two remained unchanged compared to March. Construction sector posted a net gain of 17,000 jobs which is 0.2 percentage points higher than in March.

Between March and April 2018, Louisiana had the largest increase in job growth with 1.5% followed by New Hampshire (1.4%) and Kentucky (1.4%). The largest decline was in North Dakota where total employment in construction fell by 2.8. During this time, Wisconsin and Indiana declined by 1.6%.

Year-over-year, The U.S added 257,000 construction sector jobs which is a 3.7% increase in net gains. West Virginia had the highest annual growth in construction sector by 11.6%. Nevada (9.8%), and Arizona (8.2%) round out the top three. Over this period, North Dakota reported the largest decline at 17.0%, followed by Iowa (3.2%) and South Carolina (1.4%).

(more details on the increase in nonfarm payrolls in April 2018...)