Construction employment increased in December 2011 by 17,000, driven by gains in nonresidential construction employment, according the Associated General Contractors of America, Washington, D.C.
AGC officials said that construction employment likely benefited from unseasonably warm weather across much of the country that extended the building season.
“Nonresidential construction is clearly driving [December’s] employment gains,” said Ken Simonson, AGC chief economist. “But it is too early to tell whether those gains came because the weather was good enough for crews to keep working well into December or because demand is truly rebounding.”
Total construction employment now stands at 5,544,000, or 0.3% higher than a month earlier and 46,000 (0.8%) higher than December 2010, Simonson said. He added that the latest employment figures continue a months-long trend of slight gains followed by slight declines in construction employment, and that overall construction employment is still far below its peak level of 7,726,000 in April 2006. Despite the employment increase in December 2011, the industry’s unemployment rose in December to 16%, up from 13.1% in November.
Simonson said nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 20,200 positions, while heavy and civil engineering construction firms that perform the majority of publicly funded construction work shed 300 jobs. Nonresidential building contractors shed 2,700 jobs in December. Residential construction lost 400 total jobs, as the residential specialty trade contractors shed 2,900 jobs and residential builders added only 2,500 positions in December.
Related Stories
| Dec 29, 2014
Clayco lends operational support and financing to construction services startups [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Design-build firm Clayco has launched an investment arm called Treehouse Adventures to provide financing and operational infrastructure to startups, including those serving the AEC industry. The new venture was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Reef Worlds to build world’s largest underwater theme park for luxury resort [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Dubai is known for its gargantuan commercial building projects. The latest to be proposed is the world’s largest underwater theme park, designed and built by Reef Worlds. The project was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
New data-gathering tool for retail designers [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Beacon technology personalizes smartphone messaging, creating a new information resource for store designers. It was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Leo A Daly's minimally invasive approach to remote field site design [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
For the past six years, Leo A Daly has been designing sites for remote field stations with near-zero ecological disturbance. The firm's environmentally delicate work was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Wearable job site management system allows contractors to handle deficiencies with subtle hand and finger gestures [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Technology combines a smartglass visual device with a motion-sensing armband to simplify field management work. The innovation was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
From Ag waste to organic brick: Corn stalks reused to make construction materials [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Ecovative Design applies its cradle-to-cradle process to produce 10,000 organic bricks used to build a three-tower structure in Long Island City, N.Y. The demonstration project was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
14 great solutions for the commercial construction market
Ideas are cheap. Solutions are what count. The latest installment in BD+C's Great Solutions series presents 14 ways AEC professionals, entrepreneurs, and other clever folk have overcome what seemed to be insoluble problems—from how to make bricks out of agricultural waste, to a new way to keep hospitals running clean during construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
HealthSpot station merges personalized healthcare with videoconferencing [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
The HealthSpot station is an 8x5-foot, ADA-compliant mobile kiosk that lets patients access a network of board-certified physicians through interactive videoconferencing and medical devices. It was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 28, 2014
Robots, drones, and printed buildings: The promise of automated construction
Building Teams across the globe are employing advanced robotics to simplify what is inherently a complex, messy process—construction.
BIM and Information Technology | Dec 28, 2014
The Big Data revolution: How data-driven design is transforming project planning
There are literally hundreds of applications for deep analytics in planning and design projects, not to mention the many benefits for construction teams, building owners, and facility managers. We profile some early successful applications.