Seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment increased in 22 states from April to May, decreased in 27 states and the District of Columbia, and was unchanged in Idaho, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday.

Although materials costs continued to accelerate in May, they may be about to hit the brakes. That’s what futures markets and price reporting services are signaling, anyway.

Contractors suffered from a new round of price increases for key materials in May but were largely unable to pass their costs along to customers, according to an analysis of producer price index figures released Tuesday by AGC.

“Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve districts indicated that economic activity generally continued to expand since the last report, though a few districts indicated some deceleration,” the Fed reported on Wednesday in the latest Beige Book, a summary of informal soundings of businesses in the districts, which are referred to by their headquarters cities.

In May, seasonally adjusted “nonfarm payroll employment changed little (+54,000), following increases that averaged 220,000 in the prior 3 months,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday.

Construction spending inched up for the second straight month in April, 0.4 percent– following downward revisions to the March spending figures – thanks to increases in private nonresidential and home-improvement spending, AGC reported Wednesday in an analysis of new Census Bureau data. 

After a five-year slide in construction spending, it is tempting to believe that the industry will be “back to normal” sometime in the next five years. But it’s more likely some segments will never match their  peaks of the last decade, whereas other categories will far exceed past levels.

Construction employment declined between April 2010 and April 2011 in 179 out of 337 metropolitan areas (including divisions of larger metros) for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides data, increased in 114 and stayed level in 44, according to an analysis AGC released on Thursday.

Seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment increased in 42 states and the District of Columbia from March to April and decreased in eight states, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday.

The producer price index (PPI) for finished goods climbed 1.2% in April, not seasonally adjusted (0.8%, seasonally adjusted), and 6.8% since April 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Thursday.