Impact Analysis of Covid-19 Pandemic on Construction Employment in the United States

Abstract

Construction industry is one of the major contributing sectors of the U.S. economy. Due to COVID-19 pandemic construction industry has witnessed halt and cancellation of ongoing and planned projects. As projects got halted and cancelled many construction companies furloughed or terminated employment contracts of their workers. This sudden termination has been reflected in the monthly employment numbers. This paper presents the employment change in three constituting subsectors of construction industry: building, heavy and civil, and specialty trade due to COVID-19 pandemic. The paper has utilized historical data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to forecast the expected employment numbers in absence of the pandemic. It has been found that due to pandemic the construction employment went down by 5.5 million between March 2020 and December 2020. Additionally, it has been found that the variation of the extent of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of employment on the three subsectors is insignificant. This means that the three subsectors suffered the consequences equally. The outcomes of the paper can be utilized by the policy makers in exploring the broader implications of the construction employment change. It can also be used in subsector specific policy planning purpose.