Trade-specific occupations represent 64 percent of all jobs in the residential construction industry, and carpenters represent almost half of those construction jobs.
Nationwide housing starts were virtually unchanged in February, inching down 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 907,000 units, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built, single-family homes rose one point to 47 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 9.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 468,000 units in January from an upwardly revised pace of 427,000 units in the previous month.
Slightly lower median home prices along with a small uptick in mortgage rates contributed to housing affordability holding steady in the fourth quarter.
Due largely to unusually severe weather across much of the nation, housing starts fell 16 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 880,000 units in January.