US construction employment climbs again
By Chris Sleight10 May 2010
Construction employment in the US increased by 14000 (+0.2%) in April, building on the 26000 jobs added to the industry in March. However, at 5.54 million jobs, construction industry employment in April was -9,0% lower than a year ago, and some -27% lower than the peak of 7.64 million jobs, seen in August 2006.
According to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) all the job increases were in non-residential building and civil engineering. It added that employment in residential building fell for the 37th consecutive month in April, with 10900 jobs lost.
The AGC went on to say that the unemployment rate in the non-seasonally adjusted construction industry was 21.8% in April, the highest for this month since records were started in 1976. It said the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates there are currently 1.92 million unemployed would-be construction workers in the US.
