Mischa Fisher, Chief Economist

Residential building jobs, which track closely with home service employment and act as part of the training pipeline for new home service workers, are now up 4% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is roughly double the growth rate of employment in the sector in 2019 and is yet another example showing a…

February employment growth bounced back to a relatively strong 379,000 net new jobs gained month over month, and the national unemployment rate dropped to 6.2%, a level lower than the average post great recession recovery rate of 6.4%. However, despite these signs of labor market health, there is evidence that job growth is not happening…

As the 2021 remodeling season gets underway, we’re relaunching our True Cost Report from years past, with a specific focus on 1) What common projects cost, 2) what causes total cost to rise or fall 3) how much you should expect costs to vary, and 4) how prices for the most common projects changed during…

Employment in January grew by a disappointing 49,000 new jobs to a total of 142.6 million. Average monthly job growth absent a global pandemic would typically be 300-400% higher and average job growth at the start of the post pandemic recovery was over 2,000% higher, averaging over 1.5M jobs created each month for the first…

December was a disappointment for job growth across the economy with total payrolls dropping for the first time since the start of payroll employment recovery in May. The 1% job loss means the recovery stalled for much of the economy, just not for the residential construction sector, which now exceeds the level it stood at…

Key Takeaways HomeAdvisor’s new 2020 State of Home Spending report is now available Spending increased across the board for improvement, maintenance, and repair driven in part by rising labor and supply costs Millennials are highest average spenders on home improvement, spending nearly $10,000 on home improvement projects this year  How much more time did we…

Today our research team released Skilled Trades in America, a report that examines America’s home service professionals and identifies the ways in which the industry can strengthen, grow, and diversify its labor force. The skilled trades, particularly those that work in home services, are an under studied profession in the United States. While we culturally…

Key Takeaways New home construction took a hit in April, with starts falling 30%. New home permits and new home starts lead new home completions by 6-12 months, which will potentially boost remodeling in 2021 as home prices are bid up due to a reduction in new post-COVID dwellings entering the market. The supply shortage…

Household spending on remodeling and maintenance expenditures changes as household income increases. Across all household income levels, maintenance spending increases by $2.29 for every additional thousand dollars of income, while remodeling spending increases by $25.44 for every additional thousand dollars of income. However, lower income households put a proportionally higher focus on maintenance spending for…

This year we conducted a deep dive into the home service market to develop our own estimate of the total market size, distinguish the home services market from home sales and new home construction, look at some of the fundamental drivers of market growth, and make some predictions about the future.   Using our data…