Residential construction employment has slowed in recent months. Over the last 12 months, residential construction employment has shed a net of 48,800 jobs, marking the fifteenth consecutive annual decline and the longest stretch of annual losses since the Great Recession, according to data from the National Association of Home Builders. However, some regions of the U.S. are seeing healthy levels of residential construction employment.

Residential construction employment is focused in rural and suburban counties

The residential construction industry’s employment footprint is particularly strong in rural and suburban counties. For instance, of the 286 non-metro and micro-counties identified by the report, 139 counties, or 48.6%, had residential construction employment shares above the national level. Similarly, 57.8% of large metro outlying counties had residential construction employment shares above the national share.

On the other hand, large metro core counties recorded low residential construction employment, with just 33.9% of counties in this category above the national share.

Residential construction employment is focused in the West

The West led the way with the highest concentration of residential construction employment. In Oregon, for instance, 92.6% of counties had residential construction employment above the national share. Likewise, in Washington and Utah, a respective 91.3% and 89.5% of counties were above the national share.

Meanwhile, the South led with the lowest share of construction employment

Counties in Southern and Great Plains states had a smaller residential construction employment share than the national share. Louisiana had the most counties below the national share, at 97.1%, followed by Mississippi at 92.3%, and then Oklahoma at 87.1%.