Construction employers in the US added 290,000 jobs last year – the largest annual increase since 2005, The Construction Index reported. Working hours are also getting longer as employers struggle to fill posts. The average working week for craft workers – production and non-supervisory employees – lengthened to 40.1 hours, the most since the series began in 1947, as firms are asking employees to work more overtime to make up for the difficulty in finding additional workers. The addition of 48,000 jobs in December meant that the sector’s unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America.
