“Construction hiring fell to the slowest rate on record in February,” Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors said in a statement. “At the same time, contractors remained reluctant to lay off workers while employees were even more reluctant to leave.”  

On a monthly basis, the number of hires are down by 88,000, while total job separations declined by 34,000. Year-over-year, the number of hires fell by 74,000, with separations were down by 57,000. Of all categories, the only number to increase was the yearly figure for layoffs and discharges—up 4,000 since February 2025.

“The combination of historically slow hiring and exceedingly few separations made February 2026 the month with the least construction labor force churn since the [Bureau of Labor Statistics] began this survey in December 2000,” said Basu. 

He noted that this data was recorded before the beginning of the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict at the end of February. “Recent data and developments suggest that hiring is unlikely to rebound in the near future.” Basu said.