The Labor Department?EUR??,,????'???s broadest measure of labor underutilization, including discouraged workers that have stopped looking for work as well as those working only part-time for economic reasons, has soared by more than 5 percentage points during the last two quarters ?EUR??,,????'??+ reaching 15.6 percent by March.

The housing sector began to lose jobs around the beginning of 2006, nearly two years before the national recession began, and the losses continue to be substantial. The cumulative loss of employment in residential construction (builders and specialty trade contractors) was 973,000 by March of this year, a 28 percent decline, and 171,000 jobs were lost in the first quarter of this year alone.

There naturally have been sizable job losses in industries closely related to housing production. The housing finance system has lost a large percentage of workers employed during the earlier boom period, and mortgage loan brokers have been particularly hard-hit. – Courtesy of NAHB