The construction workforce was smaller in every state and the District of Columbia in January 2010 than it was just 12 months earlier, according to a new analysis of federal data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. The data indicated just how widespread the construction downturn is, association officials said, noting that 38 states and D.C. experienced a double digit percentage drop in construction employment.
"Construction employment is dropping everywhere and plummeting almost everywhere," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. "Looking at this data, it is quite clear that the construction industry has yet to hit bottom."
Simonson noted that California lost more construction jobs, 128,700, while North Dakota lost the least jobs, 200, over the past twelve months. The five states with the largest percentage decline in employment were Nevada (29.9 percent); Arizona (26 percent); Colorado (22.2 percent); Idaho (21 percent); and Florida (20.4 percent). Meanwhile, North Dakota (1 percent); Nebraska (4.1 percent); Alaska (4.2 percent); South Dakota (5.9 percent); and Arkansas (6.2 percent) experienced the smallest decline in construction employment.
Even the monthly employment changes reflect the tough construction conditions, said Simonson, noting that 31 states lost construction jobs between December and January. He added that most of the states adding jobs for the month lost jobs in December, often more than they gained back in January. The economist said this suggested the monthly data was affected by unseasonable weather conditions that also are likely to affect February's state employment figures.
Association officials cited the new state employment data in urging the Senate to pass a ten month extension to the nation's surface transportation program and for the administration to accelerate stimulus-funded construction projects. "As privately-funded construction activity continues to decline, federal investments in infrastructure are often the difference between a job and unemployment for what's left of the industry."
View the state-by-state employment data.
Related Stories
| Apr 5, 2011
Are architects falling behind on BIM?
A study by the National Building Specification arm of RIBA Enterprises showed that 43% of architects and others in the industry had still not heard of BIM, let alone started using it. It also found that of the 13% of respondents who were using BIM only a third thought they would be using it for most of their projects in a year’s time.
| Apr 5, 2011
Top 10 Buildings: Women in Architecture
Making selections of top buildings this week led to a surprising discovery about the representation of women in architecture, writes Tom Mallory, COO and co-founder, OpenBuildings.com. He discovered that finding female-created architecture, when excluding husband/wife teams, is extremely difficult and often the only work he came across was akin to interior design.
| Apr 5, 2011
What do Chengdu, Lagos, and Chicago have in common?
They’re all “world middleweight cities” that are likely to become regional megacities (10 million people) by 2025—along with Dongguan, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, and Wuhan (China); Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo); Jakarta (Indonesia); Lahore (Pakistan); and Chennai (India), according to a new report from McKinsey Global Institute: “Urban World: Mapping the economic power of cities”.
| Mar 30, 2011
China's low-carbon future city
In 2005, the Chinese government announced its target to reduce energy consumption per GDP unit by 20% by the year 2010. After a multi-billion investment, that target has been reached. The Chinese Climate Protection Program’s goal to increase energy efficiency, develop renewable energies, and promote energy savings while reducing pollutant emissions and strengthening environmental protection is reflected in the “Future City” by SBA Design.
