Construction employment lost 104,000 jobs in February and 826,000 jobs over 12 months, according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), Arlington, Va. Those losses accounted for one-fifth of the economy-wide decrease over the last year, even though the industry accounts for only one out of 20 employees.
All five construction employment categories experienced sharp declines in jobs: Residential building and specialty trade contractors each lost 15% of employees in a year, while non-residential building, specialty trades, and heavy and civil engineering cut 8.4%. A predictor of demand for future construction, employment in architectural and engineering services lost 16,000 jobs in February and 56,300 over the last 12 months.
