Construction employment totaled 6.645 million in May, a drop of 15,000 jobs compared to April, the Associated General Contractors reported June 3. And that came after a decline of 5,000 employees from March to April. But even with those back-to-back decreases, industry employment increased by 219,000, or 3.4 percent, from May 2015 to May 2016.

"Although construction employment slipped in April and May, the industry has added workers in the past year at double the rate of the overall economy," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. "Average pay in construction is rising faster than in the rest of the private sector, and the number of unemployed construction workers was at the lowest May level in 16 years. These facts support what contractors tell us: they have plenty of work but are struggling to find qualified workers to hire."

While the purported lack of workers in the construction industry is an ongoing assertion by the AGC, it is refuted, at least in part, by the last two surveys of contractors and unions by The Association of Union Contractors. The TAUC found that worker shortages were spotty around the country, with some crafts actively seeking to recruit workers and others doing little in that area.

Average hourly earnings, a measure of wages and salaries for all workers, increased 2.6 percent in construction to $28.04 in May. That was nearly 10 percent higher than the private-sector average, which rose 2.5 percent over the past 12 months, Simonson said. He added that the number of unemployed jobseekers who last worked in the construction industry decreased for the seventh year in a row, to 461,000, the lowest total for May since 2000.

There were construction employment gains in the past year in 235 out of the 358 metro areas in the U.S., losses in 67 areas, and no change in 56. The largest percentage gains occurred in none other than Monroe, Mich. (+30 percent, 700 jobs); El Centro, Calif. (26 percent, 700 jobs); Urban Honolulu, Hawaii (20 percent, 5,000 jobs) and Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury Town, Mass.-N.H. (20 percent, 800 jobs).

The largest percentage declines were in Bloomington, Ill. (-31 percent, -1,100 jobs); Dothan, Ala. (-16 percent, -500 jobs) and Fairbanks, Alaska (-14 percent, -400 jobs).