Dive summary:
- There's no denying that adding 30,000 jobs in the construction industry between November and December is good news, but it's only the residential sector that's really making progress.
- According to federal data, 18,100 of the new jobs were in residential – 5,800 with building contractors and 12,300 with specialty contractors.
- Nonresidential contractors overall had more workers than in November, but heavy and civil engineering construction companies lost 700 jobs, and the total stood 0.4% below where it was a year before.
From the release:
"Resurgent demand for new housing construction and modest growth in private commercial construction are helping create some new construction jobs," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. ...
