The construction industry’s message: “We’re hiring.” In fact, there are 225,000 construction job openings, according to the most recent statistics released by the Bureau of Labor from July 2017. After the Great Recession, residential construction rebounded and home builders and remodelers have been adding jobs, according to the National Association of Home Builders(NAHB), which is a Washington-based trade association. The association also says the construction industry needs to begin attracting younger workers to replace those who are ageing and retiring to help address the chronic labor shortage that's been affecting the industry for the past few years. 
But, if you're in the construction industry, or looking to enter it, know this: Wages vary vastly state-by-state. On the low end of the scale, for example, construction laborers in Arkansas only make about $12.38 per hour. But in Massachusetts, laborers earn closer to $26 an hour. We mined occupational, state-by-state data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find out the average earning of construction laborers in each state. In fact, you can generate a report for any occupational industry using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can also have the data broken down by metropolitan areas, as well, or have it delivered as annual salaries rather than hourly rates. Here's what construction workers, on average, make in each state. This data is based on May 2016 figures, which is the most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national average for construction laborers during the same time frame is $18.22. Alabama: $13.74 Alaska: $23.88 Arizona: $15.84 Arkansas: $12.38 California: $21.26 Colorado: $16.52 Connecticut: $21.47 District of Columbia: $19.87 Delaware: $16.57 Florida: $14 Georgia: $15.69 Hawaii: $27.01 Idaho: $14.41 Illinois: $27.01 Indiana: $18.57 Iowa: $17.23 Kansas: $16.29 Kentucky: $15.97 Louisiana: $15.07 Maine: $14.93 Maryland: $15.96 Massachusetts: $25.84 Michigan: $18.31 Minnesota: $22.88 Mississippi: $13.92 Missouri: $20.51 Montana: $18.06 Nebraska: $14.50 Nevada: $18.90 New Hampshire: $17.16 New Jersey: $24.05 New Mexico: $14.30 New York: $23.11 North Carolina: $13.50 North Dakota: $19.10 Ohio: $19.20 Oklahoma: $14.19 Oregon: $18.13 Pennsylvania: $18.61 Rhode Island: $20.45 South Carolina: $14.31 South Dakota: $14.02 Tennessee: $14.25 Texas: $14.62 Utah: $14.80 Virginia: $15.94 Vermont: $15.94 Washington: $22.00 West Virginia: $16.47 Wisconsin: $19.93 Wyoming: $16.45 [H/t: Money Talks News]
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