The housing recovery is juicing the job market, but the job market isn’t returning the favor, according to Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.
Riding on rising home sales, residential construction employment has shot up 4.5 percent year over year, far outpacing the national employment growth rate of 1.7 percent, he said.
But a high unemployment rate is holding back housing demand, Kolko noted, saying 25- to 34-year-olds, in particular, are suffering from the still-weak jobs climate, with only 75 percent of that cohort employed.
Added Kolko: “Job growth remains sluggish for young adults — who are key for household formation — and job growth is lagging in the “clobbered metros” hit hardest in the housing bust. That means the job market isn’t improving enough to give a strong boost to housing demand.”
