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Jobs, Unemployment Down in U.S. Construction

Announcement posted by DesignBuild Source 14 May 2012

Economy

While the overall number of people working in the U.S. construction industry has fallen, unemployment in the industry has actually declined according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

In its most recent employment report, the department noted the number of construction jobs nation-wide dropped by some 2,000 in April. Despite what appears on the surface to be bad news, unemployment in the sector dropped by almost three per cent in that time.

The reduction in the unemployment rate comes, curiously, at a time when many fewer jobs were available in various construction areas. Throughout April, there was a loss of 8,400 jobs in specialty trade contracting, 2,500 jobs in residential construction and 1,100 in non-residential construction.

Those losses were offset largely by growth in other sectors. Specialty trade contractor employment rose by some 6,300 jobs and the civil and heavy industry construction sector saw an increase of some 3,300 jobs.

Those boosts helped paint a rosier picture than in recent times overall. While the construction sector was particularly hard-hit following the global financial crisis, the industry as a whole has registered a modest uptick in employment figures. Overall, there were 63,000 more jobs in April, 2012 than in April, 2011. That marked a 1.1 per cent increase in employment figures, with unemployment figures naturally coming in lower than in recent times....

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