Construction Adds Jobs in January

According to numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the construction industry added 46,000 jobs in January, accounting for “nearly one-fourth of the nation’s employment gains,” according to Ken Simonson, the chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).

Simonson says that over the past year, the construction industry has added jobs at three times the rate of the overall economy, gaining 345,000 jobs or 4.9 percent.

“Furthermore, all five BLS construction categories outpaced the overall job market during the past year,” Simonson says. “Heavy and civil engineering employment grew by 6 percent, residential specialty trades and residential building by 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively, and nonresidential specialty trades and building by 2 percent.”

Simonson cites two factors that may have boosted highway and other heavy construction employment in the month of January. First, he says that many regions have experienced a mild winter, which has kept concrete pouring and other temperature-sensitive activities up and running where they usually slow. Secondly, he says that infrastructure rebuilding in New Orleans and other hurricane-ravaged areas in the Gulf Coast have helped construction job creation.

“However, I don’t expect reconstruction in the Gulf region to be a positive for construction in general,” Simonson says. “Louisiana lost 30,000 construction jobs after Hurricane Katrina hit, and only one quarter of those jobs have been added back as of December.”

Simonson also raises concerns that the mild weather could lead to an additional strain on cement supply in 2006.