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Construction Employment At Eight-Year High12-03-16 | Economic News

Construction Employment At Eight-Year High

Industry Expands By 19,000 Net New Jobs

The residential and nonresidential segments both expanded in November, pushing the construction industry's overall employment picture to an eight-year high, the Associated General Contractors of America reports.

The construction industry added 19,000 net new jobs to its workforce in November, lifting its overall employment number to an eight-year high of 6.7 million, the Associated Contractors of America said.

Residential construction "?u comprised of residential building (+4,900) and specialty trade contractors (+14,700) "?u expanded by 19,600 jobs. And nonresidential construction "?u comprised of nonresidential building (+300) and nonresidential specialty trade contractors (+800) "?u added another 1,100 jobs.

However, the heavy and civil engineering segment shed 2,100 jobs because of a drop in public sector investment in construction projects, AGC officials said. Most of the declines were in the subsectors of highways, water, sewer, conservation and transportation.

The result is a net jump of 19,000 jobs.

"This report shows the construction industry has the capacity to handle additional infrastructure work even as private nonresidential projects, apartments and homebuilding continue to go up," said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the AGC. "The industry would be adding more high-paid jobs if local, state and federal officials were investing more to build new and repair aging infrastructure."