Construction industry adds 11k jobs in October, though unemployment rate ticks back up

Updated Nov 11, 2013

manager with workersDespite several predictions that the government shutdown would lead to job decreases, the construction industry and U.S. economy as a whole had a positive month of job growth in October.

The construction industry added 11,000 jobs during October. October’s gains marked the fifth consecutive month of job growth.

The October gains were a bit more than half of September’s addition of 18,000 jobs, but the industry’s total workforce remained at a four-year high, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A total of 5.834 million Americans are employed in the industry, the highest number since 5.851 million were employed in August 2009.

The October total is 3 percent higher than the October 2012 total.

Despite the addition in jobs, the industry’s unemployment rate rose October’s mark of 8.5 percent to 9.0 percent in September. In October of last year the unemployment rate was 11.4 percent.

The U.S. as a whole added a surprising amount of jobs at 204,000.