Southeast Construction Employment; recently, the situation became “less horrible” (?)

On May 9, 2011, on McGraw Hill’s Southeastern Construction News, Scott Judy posted an article about “construction employment” (in the Southeast part of the U.S.).

Here’s a couple of paragraphs from Scott’s article, followed by a link to the full article:

The latest unemployment rate figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics came out recently, and the construction industry saw some improvement, according to a recent report from ENR. The industry's jobless rate fell from about 20% in March, to 17.8% in April, thanks to the addition of roughly 12,700 jobs during the month. Despite the drop in the jobless rate, construction still ranked last among the nation's major industries.

In other words, the situation became slightly less horrible.

In March, Florida's construction industry employed an estimated 332,900 workers. Compared to a year ago, that number was 4.2% lower. HISTORICAL PEAK: According to BLS, Florida's construction employment peaked in June 2006, with an estimated 687,200 construction jobs. The latest estimate of 332,900 represents a loss of 354,300 jobs, for a 51.6% drop in industry employment since that peak.

Here’s a link to the full article:

http://tinyurl.com/438kk96

Joel’s comment:

Florida construction employment is off over 50% from its peak in 2006. Unbelievable, staggering, sobering.