The non-seasonally adjusted construction unemployment rate for the country and 40 states declined in May, while the rate for one state (South Carolina) remained unchanged from April. Today's report provides further evidence that construction and the broader U.S. economy appear to have rebounded from the unusually brutal winter. On an annual basis, construction unemployment rates for 44 of the 50 states fell in May 2015 compared to May 2014. The construction unemployment rate for two states—North Dakota and Utah—were unchanged. 
 
The release of today's state-level construction unemployment estimates follows the June 5 Bureau of Labor Statistics report stating construction jobs increased by 17,000 in May following the addition of 35,000 jobs in April (both are seasonally adjusted figures). As of May, year-to-date seasonally adjusted construction jobs were up by 112,000, while the industry added 290,000 jobs from May 2014 to May 2015 on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.
 
In addition, on June 24, the U.S. Department of Commerce revised its first quarter real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product report from a drop of 0.7 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate to a milder 0.2 percent decline. The Census Bureau also reported on June 1 that total seasonally adjusted nominal (current) dollar construction spending increased 2.2 percent in April. 
 
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