Despite a boom in residential construction activity, construction employment growth has remained lackluster and is up just 100,000 from the trough in early 2011. This is because residential building declined by more than residential employment resulting in value added/worker falling from about $80,000/year to about $60,000/year as employers kept their best workers. But with total construction hours now above previous highs, expect 20,000 new hires/month for the next few years.