Productivity still flat

U.S. construction keeps adding jobs and spending billions of dollars, but federal productivity data still show little sustained gain in how much work gets done per hour. (bls.gov) The Bureau of Labor Statistics updated its construction productivity series through 2024 on September 24, 2025. It publishes labor-productivity data for four construction industries, and says the sector accounted for 5.2 percent of U.S. nonfarm payroll employment and 4.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2024. (bls.gov) Labor productivity means output per hour worked. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says residential construction productivity fell over 2007 to 2019, then rose over 2019 to 2024, while industrial building construction rose in both periods and highway, street, and bridge work remained weak. (bls.gov) That mixed picture helps explain why executives and policymakers keep returning to the same complaint: more crews and more spending have not produced a broad, economy-wide construction productivity surge. In March 2026, the industry employed 8.33 million people, up from 8.27 million in December 2025. (bls.gov) The backlog is still there. Associated Builders and Contractors said on September 16, 2025 that its Construction Backlog Indicator was 8.5 months in August, and readings for sales, staffing, and profit margins all stayed above 50, which the group says signals expected growth over the next six months. (abc.org) Contractors have paired that demand with warnings about labor supply. Associated General Contractors of America said in its 2024 hiring outlook that firms were dealing with labor shortages, higher interest rates, input costs, and supply-chain problems while also investing in tools, including artificial intelligence, to work more efficiently. (agc.org) The measurement problem is part of the story. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that construction work is spread across buildings, roads, and specialty trades, often at multiple job sites under prime contracts and subcontracts, which makes output harder to standardize than factory production. (bls.gov) The money involved is still climbing. The Census Bureau reported on February 27, 2026 that construction spending ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2.18 trillion in December 2025, with the release also carrying initial estimates for November 2025. (census.gov) The result is an industry that looks busy by almost every headline number except output per hour. Until firms turn new tools, new methods, and new workers into faster job-site execution, the productivity line is likely to stay close to where it has been. (bls.gov)