USA Construction Industry Added 13,000 Jobs In June

11 Jul 2013

According to July 5 report by Department of Labor, USA's construction industry unemployment rate fell to 9.8% for first time since September 2007 with the addition of 13,000 jobs in June. Industry has added 190,000 jobs, 3.4% increase since June 2012. Every major category of construction experienced gains in employment. Across all industries, USA added 195,000 jobs as private sector expanded by 202,000 jobs and public sector shrunk by 7,000 jobs.

Today’s employment report is positive news for the nation’s construction industry,” said Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu.

 “While the economy continues to face a number of headwinds, including most recently in the form of higher interest rates, the wealth effect associated with rising equity markets and home prices dominates the recovery,” Basu said. “The result has been steady expansion in consumer spending, which is associated with expanding job creation in closely aligned sectors of the economy.

“For construction contractors, the implication is that the volume of work associated with lodging and shopping center construction will continue to march higher,” said Basu. “Not coincidentally, more than one-third of the construction jobs added last month were added by specialty trade contractors.

“There was also evidence of more people falling into part-time work, and the broadest measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers and people working part-time for economic reasons, rose to 14.3 percent in June,” Basu added.

“Despite this increase, the construction industry’s diminishing unemployment rate shows that societal income tied to wages and salaries continues to expand slowly, which suggests the economy will only grow at a moderate pace,” said Basu. “That should be enough to help drive nonresidential construction spending higher, but progress will remain gradual.”

Source: http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/USA-Construction-Industry-added-13-000-jobs-in-June-20011076