Construction Job Growth by City: The 2026 CB&C Construction Momentum Index

How the index is built

Download the calculations (CSV)

How the CB&C Construction Momentum Index is built

The index scores the 56 US metropolitan statistical areas with more than 1 million residents on four public measures of construction employment: recent growth, five-year growth, commercial building growth and the share of all job growth that came from construction.

CB&C Construction Momentum Index: Index = (40 x A score + 25 x B score + 20 x C score + 15 x D score) / sum of the weights with data. Each score runs from 0 (weakest of the 56 metros) to 100 (strongest).

Large metro: A metropolitan statistical area with a July 1, 2025 population above 1,000,000 in the Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates. There are 56 (Census Bureau).

Component A is the change in construction employment between August 2025 and August 2026 in the BLS Current Employment Statistics (CES) State and Area file, compared month to month a year apart so that no seasonal adjustment is needed. BLS publishes a construction-only series for 28 of the 56 metros and a combined mining, logging and construction series for the other 28; the index uses construction-only data wherever it exists.

Component B is the 2020 to 2025 change in private construction (NAICS 23) employment from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), a near-complete count of jobs covered by unemployment insurance. The QCEW files opened on 2026-10-08 carried no metro totals for the second half of 2025, and 18 of the 56 metros had different county definitions in the 2020 file, so CB&C rebuilt each metro from its counties on the July 2023 delineation. QCEW supplies B for 36 metros where the counties disclosed in both years hold at least 95% of covered jobs; the remaining 20 use CES annual averages.

Component C is the change in commercial and institutional building construction (NAICS 236220) jobs between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, the latest QCEW quarter. BLS suppresses many detailed county cells for confidentiality, about 60% of the most detailed data according to the QCEW FAQ, so C exists for 31 metros where disclosed counties cover at least 80%. Component D divides the 2020 to 2025 change in construction jobs by the change in all jobs.

Scaling: each component is capped at its 5th and 95th percentile across metros, then scaled from 0 to 100. For A the floor is -3.7% and the cap 7.8%; for C the floor is -5.5% and the cap 11.3%. Recent growth carries the largest weight because the question is where jobs are being added in 2026.

Construction job growth by city: the 2026 ranking of 56 large metros

Columbus, Ohio, ranks first with 99.0 of 100, followed by Raleigh, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Charlotte. The bottom five are all on the West Coast or in Pennsylvania, with San Francisco last at 5.1.

Columbus scores 99.0 because it leads both growth components: construction employment rose 16.1% in the 12 months to August 2026 (+10,100 jobs), grew 38.1% from 2020 to 2025, and construction supplied 13.1% of all job growth in the metro over those five years (BLS CES and QCEW). Columbus has no commercial building score because too many of its county cells are suppressed.

Raleigh (90.6) combines 7.6% recent growth with the fastest commercial building gain among the 31 metros measured, 13.4%. St. Louis (87.2) added 11,200 construction jobs, up 13.8%, the second-fastest 12-month rate. Indianapolis (86.3), Charlotte (81.4), Phoenix (79.4), Omaha (78.5), Kansas City (77.2), Austin (74.1) and Milwaukee (74.1) complete the top 10.

Large size does not guarantee a high score. Houston added the most construction jobs of any large metro, 14,100, but ranks 17th because its commercial building jobs fell 1.1% and its five-year growth (16.8%) was close to the national 14.5%. New York ranks 50th after losing 6,400 jobs over 12 months.

State-level results for commercial builders appear in the Commercial Builder Opportunity Index, which ranks all 50 states and DC on a different set of measures. Local contractor listings by city are in the CB&C locations directory.

Sensitivity test: do the ranks hold under other weights?

The ranking is stable at the top and bottom. Six metros stay in the top 10 under all eight designs tested: Columbus, OH; Raleigh, NC; St. Louis, MO; Indianapolis, IN; Charlotte, NC; Kansas City, MO.

With equal weights, the Spearman rank correlation with the baseline is 0.969 and all 10 baseline top-10 metros stay in the top 10. Switching from 0 to 100 scaling to capped z-scores changes little (correlation 0.994, largest shift 7 places). Among the weight sets, a structural weighting that puts 40% on five-year growth moves ranks the most (correlation 0.940, 8 of 10 kept).

The biggest test replaces CES component A with the QCEW change between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, a full count but five months older. The correlation falls to 0.889 and one metro moves 20 places, which shows how fast metro construction readings change between quarters. Phoenix illustrates it: its CES series rose 3.8% to August 2026 while its QCEW count fell 1.2% in the year to the first quarter.

Fastest risers and decliners over the past 12 months

33 of the 56 large metros added construction jobs between August 2025 and August 2026 and 23 lost them. Columbus and St. Louis led by a wide margin; five of the 10 steepest declines were in California or Pennsylvania.

The fastest 12-month rates were Columbus (16.1%), St. Louis (13.8%), Hartford, San Jose and Charlotte (each 7.8%), Raleigh (7.6%) and Omaha (7.5%). Nationally, construction employment rose 1.2% over the same months, not seasonally adjusted (BLS CES National).

The steepest declines were Pittsburgh (5.7%), Riverside and Providence (each 4.1%), San Diego (3.6%), Portland and Virginia Beach (each 3.2%) and Sacramento (3.1%). In job counts, New York lost the most (6,400), then Riverside (4,600) and Pittsburgh (3,500).

AGC's analysis of the same BLS release counted gains in 177 of 360 metro areas, 49%, including small metros (AGC). Among large metros the share with gains is higher, 33 of 56.

Which large metros have the most construction jobs

Job counts follow population: New York, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Los Angeles each have more than 250,000 construction jobs, but none of them ranks in the index top 10.

New York had 383.7 thousand mining, logging and construction jobs in August 2026, Dallas-Fort Worth 276.2 thousand, Houston 269.0 thousand and Los Angeles 252.6 thousand (BLS CES, not seasonally adjusted). Construction pay in these markets is covered in the construction pay by metro report; this report covers job counts and growth only.

Where commercial building construction is growing or shrinking

Commercial and institutional building jobs rose 3.5% nationally between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026. Among 31 large metros with enough disclosed data, 19 grew and 12 shrank.

Commercial and institutional building construction (NAICS 236220): Establishments mainly responsible for building, adding to, altering, maintaining or repairing commercial and institutional buildings, including general contractors and design-build firms (Census NAICS). Specialty trade subcontractors are counted elsewhere.

Raleigh (13.4%), Denver (12.3%), Miami (10.2%), Indianapolis (9.4%) and Kansas City (7.7%) posted the fastest commercial building gains. Miami added the most jobs in the segment, about 1,554, and Dallas-Fort Worth about 1,316 (BLS QCEW).

San Diego (7.2%), Hartford (5.6%), Fresno (5.3%), Riverside and San Antonio (each 5.0%) shrank fastest. New York lost the most commercial building jobs, about 1,143, a 3.4% drop.

Florida metros vs the nation

Three of Florida's four large metros grew faster than the US from 2020 to 2025, but only Tampa beat the national rate over the past 12 months. Miami ranks highest at 27th; Tampa is 28th, Jacksonville 31st and Orlando 41st.

From 2020 to 2025, private construction jobs grew 17.6% in Jacksonville, 16.2% in Tampa, 15.0% in Miami and 12.6% in Orlando, against 16.7% for Florida and 14.5% for the US (BLS QCEW). Over the 12 months to August 2026, Florida construction employment rose only 0.3%, below the national 1.2%.

Within the Miami metro, construction jobs rose 0.9% in the Fort Lauderdale division and fell 0.5% in Miami-Dade and 1.6% in West Palm Beach (BLS CES). Commercial building is the exception: Miami's NAICS 236220 jobs rose 10.2%, nearly three times the national 3.5%. Local firm listings are on the Miami commercial builders page.

Latest national check: construction jobs through September 2026

National data released on 2026-10-02 show construction still adding jobs slowly, which frames the metro results above.

US construction employment changed little in September 2026 (+11,000), after an average gain of 10,000 jobs per month over the prior 12 months (BLS Employment Situation). Seasonally adjusted employment was 8.364 million in September 2026, up 1.3% from 8.255 million a year earlier (BLS CES National).

National commercial building employment, seasonally adjusted, rose 3.6% from 759.2 thousand in August 2025 to 786.2 thousand in August 2026, close to the 3.5% QCEW gain in the first quarter. The workforce side of the market, openings and hires, is covered in the construction labor shortage report.

What the index cannot tell you

The index measures payroll jobs, not project pipelines, profits or pay, and its newest month will be revised.

• August 2026 metro figures are preliminary and will be revised next month and again at the annual benchmark.
• 28 metros are measured with a mining, logging and construction series; mining and logging are small in most large metros but not zero.
• QCEW counts jobs by employer location; contractors working across metro lines are counted where the establishment is.
• Component C covers only 31 metros because detailed county data are suppressed; metros without C are scored on the other three components.
• The 2020 base year was a pandemic year; five-year growth and construction's share of job growth are larger where total jobs fell more in 2020.
• Weights are a judgment; the sensitivity section shows how far ranks move under other choices.

Key findings

1. Columbus, Ohio, construction employment rose 16.1% (+10,100 jobs) from August 2025 to August 2026, the fastest of 56 large US metros.^[1]
2. St. Louis construction employment rose 13.8% (+11,200 jobs) from August 2025 to August 2026.^[1]
3. Houston added 14,100 construction jobs from August 2025 to August 2026, the largest gain among large US metros.^[1][23]
4. New York-Newark-Jersey City lost 6,400 mining, logging and construction jobs from August 2025 to August 2026, the largest loss among large metros.^[1]
5. Pittsburgh construction employment fell 5.7% from August 2025 to August 2026, the steepest decline among large metros.^[1]
6. 33 of the 56 US metros with more than 1 million residents added construction jobs between August 2025 and August 2026.^[1][14]
7. US construction employment rose 1.2% from August 2025 to August 2026, not seasonally adjusted (8.452 million to 8.553 million).^[6]
8. US private construction employment grew 14.5% from 2020 to 2025, from 7,203,279 to 8,251,002 jobs (annual averages).^[7][8]
9. US commercial and institutional building employment rose 3.5% from the first quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026.^[9]
10. Raleigh commercial building employment rose 13.4% from the first quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, the fastest of 31 large metros measured.^[9]
11. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach commercial building employment rose 10.2% in the year to the first quarter of 2026 while total construction jobs fell 0.3% in the year to August 2026.^[1][9]
12. Construction accounted for 6.3% of all US job growth from 2020 to 2025, and 13.1% in Columbus.^{[1][7][8][10]}
13. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont ranks last of 56 on the index (5.1); its private construction jobs fell 3.6% from 2020 to 2025.^[7][8]

Summary for decision makers

• Columbus, Ohio, ranks first on the CB&C Construction Momentum Index with 99.0 of 100; Raleigh (90.6) and St. Louis (87.2) follow.
• 33 of 56 large metros added construction jobs between August 2025 and August 2026; 23 lost them (BLS CES, not seasonally adjusted).
• US construction employment rose 1.2% over the same 12 months, so the leaders grew several times faster than the nation.
• Houston added the most construction jobs, 14,100; New York lost the most, 6,400.
• Commercial building jobs (NAICS 236220) rose 3.5% nationally in the year to the first quarter of 2026, led by Raleigh (13.4%) and Denver (12.3%).
• Florida's four large metros rank between 27th and 41st; Miami's commercial building jobs rose 10.2% while its total construction jobs slipped 0.3%.
• Six metros stay in the top 10 under all eight index designs tested: Columbus, OH; Raleigh, NC; St. Louis, MO; Indianapolis, IN; Charlotte, NC; Kansas City, MO.

Frequently asked questions

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Methodology

Selection: the 56 metropolitan statistical areas with a July 1, 2025 population above 1 million in the Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates, on the July 2023 OMB delineation. Only Tier 1 government files feed the index; AGC, Construction Coverage and ColoradoBiz are used only for comparison.

Component A uses the BLS CES State and Area file (updated 2026-09-18, August 2026 preliminary, benchmark year 2025), comparing August 2026 with August 2025 not seasonally adjusted. Where BLS publishes construction alone it is used; otherwise the mining, logging and construction series is used and flagged.

Components B and D use QCEW annual averages for 2020 and 2025. Because the open-data files carried no 2025 metro totals for the third and fourth quarters and 18 metros had different county lists in 2020, metros were rebuilt from county records using only counties disclosed in both years. Where those counties held less than 95% of the metro's 2025 covered jobs, CES annual averages replaced QCEW (20 metros). The quarterly-to-annual method was validated on 2024, where averaging 12 monthly levels matched the published annual average within 0.5 jobs in all 344 metros with data.

Component C uses QCEW NAICS 236220 private employment, first-quarter averages of monthly levels for 2025 and 2026, summed over counties disclosed in both quarters, for metros where those counties held at least 80% of covered jobs (31 metros).

Scaling and weights: each component is capped at its 5th and 95th percentile and scaled 0 to 100; the index is the weighted mean (A 40, B 25, C 20, D 15) of the components with data. Seven alternatives were tested: equal weights, momentum-heavy, structural, no commercial component, capped z-scores, QCEW first-quarter change for A, and 2020 to 2025 commercial building change for C.

Conflicts: where CES and QCEW disagree, both are shown and the sensitivity test reports the effect. AGC's published metro figures were checked against the BLS file; Houston matched, and figures that could not be reproduced were not used (see excluded.md).

Limitations: preliminary data, sampling error, mixed series definitions, suppression of detailed county data, and a pandemic base year. All calculations are in derived_metrics.csv and the scripts folder. Last updated 2026-10-08.

This report presents published data with its limitations. It is not legal, financial or investment advice.

Sources, ranked by quality

Tier 1: primary and official sources (20)

• [1] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. CES State and Area Employment flat files: sm.data.62.Construction.Current, sm.data.61.MiningLoggingConstr.Current, sm.data.54.TotalNonFarm.All (updated 2026-09-18). January 2020 to August 2026 (August 2026 preliminary). Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [2] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. CES State and Area series catalog and file documentation (sm.series, sm.txt). Benchmark year 2025. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [3] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment, August 2026 (news release USDL-26-1548, September 30, 2026). August 2026. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [4] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment Technical Note. Current methods. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [5] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Employment Situation, September 2026 (news release USDL-26-1549, October 2, 2026). September 2026. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [6] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. CES National flat file: ce.data.20a.Construction.Employment (series CES2000000001, CEU2000000001, CES2023622001). 2020 to September 2026. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [7] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW open data, NAICS 23 construction, 2020 annual averages (county, MSA, state, US). 2020 annual average. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [8] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW open data, NAICS 23 construction, 2025 annual averages. 2025 annual average. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [9] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW open data, NAICS 236220 commercial and institutional building construction, first quarter 2026 (with first quarter 2025 file at /2025/1/). Q1 2025 and Q1 2026. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [10] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW open data, total covered employment (industry 10), 2025 annual averages (with 2020 file at /2020/a/). 2020 and 2025 annual averages. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [11] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. County Employment and Wages, First Quarter 2026 (news release USDL-26-1424, August 28, 2026). First quarter 2026. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [12] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW Open Data Access (CSV slice documentation). Current. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [13] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW Questions and Answers (confidentiality and suppression). Current. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [14] U.S. Census Bureau. Vintage 2025 population estimates for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas (cbsa-est2025-alldata.csv). July 1, 2025. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [15] U.S. Census Bureau. Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas Population Totals and Components of Change: 2020-2025 (March 2026). 2020 to 2025. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [16] U.S. Census Bureau. CBSA delineation file, July 2023 (list1_2023.xlsx, OMB Bulletin 23-01 counties). July 2023 delineation. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [17] U.S. Census Bureau. Delineation Files (metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas reference files). 2023. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [18] U.S. Census Bureau. North American Industry Classification System 2022: 236220 Commercial and Institutional Building Construction. NAICS 2022. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [19] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Industries at a Glance: Construction, NAICS 23. Current. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [20] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW open data, NAICS 23 construction, first quarter 2026 (with first quarter 2025 file at /2025/1/). Q1 2025 and Q1 2026. Accessed 2026-10-08.

Tier 2: trade bodies, market research, company data (2)

• [21] Associated General Contractors of America. Construction Employment Grows in Just Under Half of Metro Areas (September 30, 2026). August 2025 to August 2026. Accessed 2026-10-08.
• [22] Construction Coverage. Cities With the Most Construction Workers (published 2025-08-04). 2024 to 2025 data. Accessed 2026-10-08.

Tier 3: journalism and expert commentary (1)

• [23] ColoradoBiz. Construction jobs rise in 49% of metro areas led by Texas and Louisiana gains (September 30, 2026). August 2025 to August 2026. Accessed 2026-10-08.