The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) announced Friday that construction employment in the US declined by 16,000 during the month of December 2010 as the industry's unemployment rate hit 20.7 percent.
Construction employment declined by 0.3 percent during the month, leaving only 5.6 million people employed in the industry, a 27 percent decline since construction employment peaked in August 2006 at 7.7 million, according to Ken Simonson, the AGC's chief economist. During the past twelve months the construction industry has lost 93,000 jobs; meanwhile, the industry's unemployment rate is more than double the overall, not seasonally adjusted, national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent.
Heavy and civil engineering construction, the category most likely to be affected by the stimulus and other temporary federal programs like base realignment, experienced the largest decline within the construction sector, dropping by 12,700 for the month. According to Simonson, the unseasonably harsh weather during December probably exacerbated the job decline in heavy construction, which is far more vulnerable than most industries to outdoor conditions.
Noting that there are now over 1.7 million unemployed construction workers in the US, association officials urged Congress and the Obama Administration to act quickly to pass several long-stalled infrastructure bills. They said that further delays would not only hurt construction employment, but would lead to increased costs for taxpayers.