Overall U.S. job growth continued to be undermined by the severe downturn affecting the construction industry as another 75,000 construction workers lost their jobs in January 2010 and the industry's unemployment rate jumped to 24.7 percent, according to federal employment figures released Friday. Excluding construction job losses, nonfarm payroll employment actually rose for the second time in three months, Â鶹ÊÓƵ said.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ's Ken Simonson talked to CNBC News about what's in store for the economy, including the construction industry, in 2010. Simonson discussed the results of a National Association for Business Economics survey. Watch the video here.
For the first time since the start of the economic downturn, every state and the District of Columbia reported losing construction jobs over the past twelve months, according to Â鶹ÊÓƵ's analysis of state-by-state employment data released Friday. The analysis found few signs of a construction industry recovery with only six states reporting construction job increases between November and December 2009.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ's chief economist urged owners to take advantage of low materials prices and contractors anxious for work, as a recent survey of Â鶹ÊÓƵ members and analysis of the producer price index showed the "sale" may soon come to an end.
Ken Simonson, Â鶹ÊÓƵ's chief economist, issued a statement yesterday in response to an Associated Press story that looked at the impact of stimulus-funded highway projects on overall construction employment.
Construction employment declined in 324 out of 337 metropolitan areas over the past year as spending on construction projects dropped by over $137 billion in November to a 6-year low of $900 billion, according to Â鶹ÊÓƵ's analysis of federal figures released Monday.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ found that while construction employment increased in 26 states this November during a period of warm, dry weather, every state but North Dakota saw a decrease over the past 12 months. Employment data was released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but Â鶹ÊÓƵ says it is too early to know if a trend is emerging.
All but 12 communities nationwide saw declines in construction employment between September 2008 and 2009, according to a new analysis of metropolitan area employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released today by Â鶹ÊÓƵ. That analysis found more construction jobs were lost in Phoenix, AZ (35,100) than in any other city in America.
The national unemployment rate for the construction industry rose to 17.1 percent as another 64,000 construction workers lost their jobs in September, according to Â鶹ÊÓƵ's analysis of new employment data released Friday. With 80 percent of layoffs occurring in nonresidential construction, Ken Simonson, Â鶹ÊÓƵ's chief economist, said the decline in nonresidential construction has eclipsed housing's problems.
The rate of decline in overall employment is gradually slowing. First-time unemployment claims dropped in mid-September, suggesting that September employment losses will shrink again, as they did in August.However, construction-particularly nonresidential construction-continues to hemorrhage jobs. Only two states-North Dakota and Louisiana-added construction jobs between August 2008 and August 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on September 18. From July to August, seasonally adjusted construction employment rose in 16 states, an improvement over the 12 states that added jobs from June to July. (Seasonal adjustment takes into account variations due to weather and differing numbers of work days.)State-level data are not broken out between types of contractors, but national data suggest that residential construction is slowly improving while nonresidential continues to deteriorate. A September 23 BLS report on mass layoff events-involving 50 or more workers from a single employer-listed construction first among seven major industry sectors that experienced the largest number of August initial layoffs. "Construction accounted for 11 percent of [layoff] events and 10 percent of initial claims [from newly laid-off workers], an increase from 10 percent of events and 7 percent of claims in August 2008," BLS reported. Initial claims jumped 23 percent in construction compared to August 2008, while dropping 13 percent in all other industries combined.More federal stimulus funds should reach contractors in coming months as agencies belatedly ramp up contract awards. But the increase is unlikely to offset continued shrinkage in private and state and local government-funded projects. Many contractors report dwindling backlogs and fierce competition for what work does appear. Meanwhile, bank financing remains difficult, if not impossible, to obtain for developers.To report changes in market conditions, favorable or not, write simonsonk@agc.org.