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The following is NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun’s reaction to this morning’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on employment in January 2020.:
“The unemployment rate remains at super-low levels across all ages, all ethnic groups, and every other grouping of workers. That’s due to the unrelenting 20 million net job additions for over a decade since 2010. The current year started off with similar strength with 225,000 net new jobs in January, which will translate – if the pace holds – into a grand 2.7 million annualized job creations in 2020. The construction jobs numbers are key for the real estate sector, as there is simply not enough housing for the growing economy. Fortunately, 44,000 new construction jobs were added in the latest month, which is one of the better monthly figures in the past decade. Even in commercial real estate, vacancy rates have tilted down, implying more construction is needed. Still, America is currently short by around 5 to 6 million housing units and much more construction is needed. Workers in construction are earning $31.19 per hour on average. Government at all levels needs to incentivize young people who are not interested in college to seek vocational training.”