With 80 percent of layoffs occurring in
nonresidential construction, Ken Simonson, AGC chief
economist, said the decline in nonresidential construction has eclipsed
housing’s problems.
The national unemployment rate for the
construction industry rose to 17.1 percent as another 64,000 construction
workers lost their jobs in September, according to the Associated General
Contractors of America (AGC) as it analyzed new employment data released Thursday. With
80 percent of layoffs occurring in nonresidential construction,Ken
Simonson, AGC chief economist, said the decline in nonresidential
construction has eclipsed housing’s problems.
“The housing industry may be stabilizing, but the broader
construction crisis is only getting worse,” Simonson said. “While the
stimulus is helping slow the decline, it’s clearly far from enough to reverse
sweeping industry-wide layoffs on its own.”
Simonson said
the new September employment data assembled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
showed 50,800 layoffs in the nonresidential construction sector this September,
while there were 13,300 fewer workers in the residential construction sector
during the same period. He added that over the last year, 649,800
nonresidential construction workers were laid off while 443,000 residential
workers lost their jobs.
Since December 2007, residential
and nonresidential construction employment shrank by 1.5 million. In other
words, one out of every five people working in construction in 2007 has lost
their job, Simonson added.
AGC CEOStephen E. Sandherrsaid the
association is calling for a series of tax credits, incentives and deductions
designed to boost demand for private-sector construction activity that represents
the bulk of the construction market. The plan also calls for programmatic
new investments in infrastructure and policy revisions designed to jump-start
needed work on highways and transit systems, water systems, federal building
and new sources of renewable energy.
Click
hereto learn more about the recovery plan, “Build Now for the Future, A
Blueprint for Economic Recovery.”
Source:
AGC of America
64,000 Construction Workers Laid Off In September
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