Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Monday, August 18, 2014
Not Red Hot: Hawaii Construction Employment Drops 1.4%
By News Release @ 9:01 PM :: 6564 Views :: Hawaii Statistics, Labor, Rail

JULY CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYMENT INCREASES IN 39 STATES FROM A YEAR AGO AND IN 34 STATES FROM PRIOR MONTH BUT CONCERNS GROW ABOUT WORKER AVAILABILITY

Nevada Has Largest 12-Month Percentage Gain and Florida Adds Largest Number of Jobs, As New Jersey Experiences Deepest Losses; Delaware and Virginia Top One-Month Lists, While California, Nebraska Lag

News Release from AGC of America, August 18, 2014 

Construction firms added jobs in 39 states from July 2013 to July 2014 and in 34 states from June to July, according to an analysis today of Labor Department data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said the employment gains are good news, but that the pipeline of skilled craft workers, supervisors and other employees appears to be emptying rapidly.

(Hawaii was one of only 12 states to lose construction jobs, dropping 1.3% -- from 30,900 in July, 2013 to 30,500 in July 2014.  This gives Hawaii the 41st-worst construction-job-growth performance in the USA. LINK: Source)

“The overall trend in construction employment has been very consistent in 2014, with more than three-fourths of states adding jobs each month on a year-over-year basis,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “However, growing numbers of contractors say they are having trouble finding skilled workers or subcontractors that can supply such workers.”

Nevada experienced the largest percentage increase in construction employment between July 2013 and July 2014 (13.4 percent, 7,500 construction jobs), followed by Delaware (13.3 percent, 2,600 jobs) and Florida (11.1 percent, 40,600 jobs). Florida again led all states in the number of construction jobs added in the latest 12 months, followed by Texas (23,600 jobs, 3.8 percent) and California (22,600 jobs, 3.6 percent).

The District of Columbia and 11 states shed construction jobs during the past twelve months, with New Jersey again losing the highest percentage and total (-6.5 percent, -8,900 jobs). Other states that lost a high percentage of jobs include West Virginia (-5.8 percent, -2,000 jobs), Mississippi (-5.6 percent, -2,900 jobs) and Arizona (-4.8 percent, -5,900 jobs). Arizona lost the second-highest number of construction jobs during the year, followed by Mississippi, then West Virginia.

Delaware had the largest percentage gain (5.7 percent, 1,200 jobs) among the 34 states that added construction workers to payrolls between June and July. Other states adding large percentages of workers in the month included Alabama (4.9 percent, 3,800 jobs), Kentucky (3.4 percent, 2,200 jobs), New Mexico (3.1 percent, 1,200 jobs), and Virginia (2.6 percent, 4,700 jobs).  Virginia added the most workers during the month, followed by Florida (4,400 jobs, 1.1 percent), Texas (4,000 jobs, 0.6 percent) and Alabama.

Fifteen states and D.C. lost construction jobs between June and July, while construction employment was unchanged in Rhode Island. California lost the most construction jobs during the month (-6,400 jobs, -1.0 percent). Other states with large monthly declines in total construction employment included New York (-3,500 jobs, -1.1 percent), Georgia (-1,500 jobs, -1.0 percent), Nebraska (-1,400 jobs, -3.0 percent) and Kansas (-1,100 jobs, -1.8 percent). Nebraska had the highest monthly percentage decline, followed by West Virginia (-1.8 percent, -600 jobs) and Kansas.

Association officials said it is encouraging that a large majority of states added construction jobs for the year and the month. However, they cautioned that construction firms in many parts of the country appear to be experiencing varying amounts of labor shortages. They said that while worker shortages appear most severe in fast-growing states like Colorado and Texas, there is still time for elected officials to act on the association’s workforce development suggestions before shortages become more widespread.

“We are at real risk of going from a situation where firms couldn’t hire because there wasn’t enough demand to firms not being able to hire because there aren’t enough qualified workers,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association’s chief executive officer. View the state employment data by rank and state.

###

Rail Reality: $144.5M Surprise: Honolulu rail stations' bid 75% higher than budgeted 

PBN August 14, 2014: Grabauskas blamed the high bids on a two-year delay that he said was caused by the lawsuit, saying that the construction market has turned “red hot” since the HART first budgeted $184 million for the stations.

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii Military History

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Together

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

July 4 in Hawaii

Land and Power in Hawaii

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii