Dive Brief:

• Crunching U.S. jobs data showed that in the construction industry, Florida had the largest percentage increase in jobs – and the largest number of jobs – from April 2013 to April this year, and then came North Dakota, Nevada and Utah.
• Overall, the results showed that 39 states and the District of Columbia gained building jobs during the year while a more geographically varied 10 states lost jobs – New Jersey, Alabama, Virginia, New Mexico, West Virginia, New Hampshire,  Montana, Indiana, Hawaii and Maine.
• From March to April, 29 states and the District of Columbia added jobs and 20 states lost them.

Dive Insight:

AGC said it considers the job data to show the recovery is still fragile because construction employment is not back to the numbers it was at before the recession. As reports from around the country say that the nationally reported shortage of construction labor is widespread locally, it is difficult to see how builders and contractors could get back to those numbers even if the economy could support it.