Out of 9.8 million people working in construction in 2016, more than 3.8 million (including self employed workers) were employed in residential construction, accounting for 2.5% of the nation’s employed civilian labor force, according to NAHB Economics estimates.
While construction employment has grown modestly since it bottomed out in 2011, employment levels remain far below the peaks of the housing boom. At that time, more than 11 million people worked in construction, including 5 million employed in home building.
Currently, California has the highest population of residential construction workers at over half a million, down 32% from 2006. Montana has the highest share of the employed labor force working in residential construction at 4.1%. New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona have been the slowest to recover residential construction job losses, but home building in Nevada and Arizona does employ more than 3% of the employed civilian labor force.
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