Efficiency First

Employment outlook for American construction workers remains bleak despite signs of economic recovery

Even as the GDP has reversed its downward trend with a 3.5 percent annual growth rate in the third quarter of this year, the latest job figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics highlight the urgent need for federal action to stimulate new employment opportunities for American construction workers.

The BLS reported on Friday that construction employment decreased by 62,000 in October, and that monthly job losses in the construction sector have averaged 67,000 over the past six months. Since December 2007, a total of 1.6 million construction jobs have dried up – and that doesn’t even include job losses in related manufacturing and retail sectors.

With construction industry unemployment at a shocking 17 percent and demand for new buildings in a tailspin, cash incentives and financing programs designed to jump-start the home energy retrofitting market represent our best hope to avoid another meltdown in the U.S. economy.

See the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ October job figures here:
www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm