Construction Industry Sheds Jobs between February and March The construction industry shed 7,000 jobs between February and March after jettisoning 6,000 jobs in January, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). However, the total number of jobs generated by the industry in March 2012 improved on the March 2011 total. The construction industry, particularly the contractors who already have a contractors continuing education, is encouraged by the news, which affirms the trend in other sectors that an economic recovery is underway.
“Both the small monthly change and the March-to-March gain of 55,000 jobs, or one percent, are consistent with the uneven, tentative recovery that contractors have been reporting nationwide,” observed Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist. Simonson noted that March was the seventh consecutive month that construction employment had posted a higher total than the same month of the previous year. “Multifamily, manufacturing, distribution, and energy-related construction are booming,” Simonson revealed. “In addition, private hospital and university work are starting to improve, but public construction is declining, while single-family homebuilding, office and retail work are largely limited to remodeling jobs.”
Simonson also said the March construction unemployment rate was 17.2 percent, about twice the national unemployment rate. He was quick to point out though that the industry rate was actually an improvement, having come down from 20 percent in March 2011 and 24.9 per cent in March 2010. IndustrialInstitute.com provides contractor continuing education programs to a construction sector that is now seeing not just an economic recovery but an industry recovery as well.