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ABC: Nonresidential Construction Adds Solid 27,900 Jobs in January

William Attardi on February 12, 2026

The construction industry added 33,000 jobs on net in January, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On a year-over-year basis, industry employment has grown by 44,000 jobs, an increase of 0.5%. Nonresidential construction employment expanded by 27,900 positions, with gains in 2 of the 3 subcategories. Nonresidential specialty trade added 25,100 jobs, while nonresidential building added 3,600 new positions. Heavy and civil engineering lost 800 jobs in January. The construction unemployment rate was 6.9% in January. Unemployment across all industries decreased to 4.3% and is 0.3 percentage points higher than one year ago. ABC: Nonresidential Construction Adds Solid 27,900 Jobs in January

Faster Economic Growth, Weaker Hiring Seen by Harriet Torry and Anthony DeBarros

William Attardi on October 13, 2025

Prospects for U.S. economic growth are looking up, as investment in artificial intelligence booms and risks around tariffs diminish, according to economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. Even as the economists have raised estimates for economic growth, they have lowered prospects for jobs. Behind the strange dichotomy: Employers are reluctant to hire given political uncertainty and rising costs, even as their investment, especially in AI, is boosting productivity and economic growth.  That slower job growth, however, won’t translate into notably higher unemployment, because the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is reducing the supply of workers. Economists expect the jobless rate to hover around 4.5% over the next year. It was 4.3% in August.  tCTlJoMg7sMgno0naAXk-WSJNewsPaper-10-13-2025.pdf

US Labor Market Remains Resilient, Unemployment Rate Falls

William Attardi on July 3, 2025

The job gains were significantly larger than expected and the unemployment rate ticked down in May. S. employers added 147,000 jobs in June and beat economists’ expectations of fewer than 118,000 new jobs as the American labor market continues to show surprising resilience despite uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1% from 4.2% in May, the Labor Department said Thursday. US Labor Market Remains Resilient, Unemployment Rate Falls – tEDmag

US Unemployment Hovers at Historically Low Levels

William Attardi on June 22, 2025

 The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dipped to 245,000 last week, hovering at historically low levels, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits the week of June 7 slid to 1.95 million. Weekly unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs and mostly have stayed within a healthy band of 200,000 to 250,000 since the economy recovered from a brief but painful COVID-19 recession in 2020, which temporarily wiped out millions of jobs. US Unemployment Hovers at Historically Low Levels – tEDmag

Telling Time – 12-hour time is a very ancient system that traces back to the Mesopotamian empires. They had a cultural fixation with the number 12, used a base-12 numerical system, and divided up most things into 12ths whenever possible – including day and night. The 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night system spread throughout Europe and the Middle East and has defied multiple attempts to change it over the centuries. Also, for anyone curious as to why there was such a love of the number 12, it was because that was how they counted on their hand. Look at your hand. Notice how each of your fingers minus your thumb has three easily identifiable parts to it. They used to count by using their thumb to count each part of the finger, much in the same way we count to 10 using our fingers today. So, 12 was the max you could count on one hand.