Posted on 03/15/2010 5:12:38 AM PDT by thackney
The construction unemployment rate jumped to 27.1% and construction employment dropped to a 14-year low as another 64,000 construction workers lost jobs in February, according to federal employment figures released recently.
The industry's job losses in February were consistent with the prior six months and not mainly attributable to exceptionally bad weather, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist for The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), Arlington, Va. Simonson added that construction unemployment is at the highest level recorded since the federal government began making the data available in 1976. And he noted that non-residential construction experienced significantly more job losses than the residential sector in February: 53,500 jobs lost versus 10,600.
Simonson also noted that job losses appeared widespread across construction sectors, with non-residential specialty trade contractors experiencing the largest monthly decline of 1.7%.
Sometimes I just want to bang my head against the wall.
As the union heads continue to celebrate the election victories of those who are destroying their members.
My question, which I regret having to ask,..Have ANY of the union members given a thought to WHY and because of WHO this is happening.
Do you enjoy your new exalted status? Do you eagerly await the delivery of your stipend from your NEW master...the politician and bureaucrat who is your new boss?
A wise man once was heard to say, “don’t ask...you may get what you asked for.”
On What size project did you make those observations?
I’m out of the game now but on a recent visit to a very large addition to a casino I saw white guys.
At some point, it must become irrevocably evident, to even the most hardline Zero supporter, that HIS policies are not only not working, but making the situation worse, day by day and for months in advance................
Home construction mostly. Don’t be fooled by “white” guys - I had some new carpet put in a year ago and one guy looked German, but was mexican and spoke no English. The French had a contingent in mexico in the 1800s and I think some of Hitler’s followers may have fled there.
I was in Boston the other week and saw some construction workers heading to a site. They had Scott Brown stickers on their helmets :-). Yes, they have woken up. I’m waiting for the rank and file to revolt on the shenangicans that their union leadership pulls. There are many in the rank and file that see the light.
Sometimes hearing the numbers just isn't enough for many people to understand. This is Minnesota Viking's Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and seats 64,000 people. Kind of puts in better perspective on how many people just lost their job in February.
As a life time career veteran of the construction industry, I know American construction workers when I see them. They were not Spanish or French hispanics
Thank you for pointing that out. That’s an indicator I can count on, not one put out by the government. I expect a ‘surge’ of stimulus money to be released this summer to prop up construction and buy votes. Some of the sheeple will always be sheeple but I think many many more have woken up and are wising up to this sham of an administration.
Pay no attention to that economic distress behind the curtain. Keep voting Democrat, union workers.
Sobering.
I know quite a few builders and they are all to a man out of work. Some were quite wealthy until about a year ago.
maybe so... but without Obama’s bailout it would of been 64 BILLION that lost their jobs!
lol
I believe it. My husband was laid off for 6 months. Finally found work. He worked for a month and is now laid off again. Its probably worse then the number shown.
I suspect different areas of the Country have a different mix, but I know that for years the vast majority of the workers in my area have been hispanic - and I suspect illegal.
This situation was caused solely by the Federal Reserve Board holding interest rates too low for too long. Because interest rates were low, people and institutions were looking for any investment that would return more than 1% per year. So the money poured into real estate.
Where I live, every vacant lot was bulldozed for either a strip mall or a condo project, all of which are now 80% empty. I know of a ten-unit apartment building that was run down and renting for maybe $400 a month per unit. The owner closed it down, remodeled it, and tried to sell them as luxury condos. Of course the building is now empty with a NO TRESPASSING sign in front of it.
Dislike Obama and the Democrats all you want. (I sure do.) But this situation has nothing to do with them. It is based solely on people trying to maximize their investment returns, and not believing that the good times and easy money will end.
Well, on the other hand, in places like Las Vegas and Southern California, how many of those jobs had been occupied by illegal workers?
can any of this be attributed to construction reaching a tipping point?
how many strip malls and buildings and new homes can be built before it reaches a saturation point. I was always amazed at the amount of new construction that took place in the 90’s and early 2000’s and often questioned the need for all the new strip malls and mega buildings. I am sure the economy has a huge role, but at sometime, construction jobs were going to run out.
What happened to all those “shovel ready jobs” were promised by the dems and the MSM when Porkulus passed?
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