Construction employment fell 12,000 to an 18-month low of 7.65 milltion. However, the three nonresidential categories-building,
specialty trade contractors, and heavy and civil engineering construction-added
64,000 jobs (1.5%) over 12 months.
Construction employment fell 12,000 to
an 18-month low of 7,650,000, down 0.7% from July 2006. However, the three
nonresidential categories-building, specialty trade contractors, and heavy and
civil engineering construction-added 64,000 jobs (1.5%) over 12 months. That
figure was swamped by a decline of 117,000 (3.4%) in residential building and
specialty trades employment. In fact, the swings may be greatly understated,
because many employees of ‘residential’ specialty trade contractors are
actually working on commercial projects but their firms still are counted in
their former industry. If residential employment has actually fallen as much as
spending (16% in the 12 months through June-see below), another 400,000 workers
(one out of six residential specialty trade employees) should be reclassified
as nonresidential, boosting that sector’s job growth to 11%.