Dive Brief:
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Bucking a national trend, Minnesota’s construction industry lost jobs in November and December, according to the state Department of Employment and Economic Development.
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Most of the 5,000 layoffs were in the civil and heavy construction sector and came as a surprise to state economists.
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The heaviest losses occurred in November and have been blamed, in part, on severe winter weather and rising worker wages.
Dive Insight:
The state agency predicted that construction employment will remain flat there in January, despite a forecast last week from the Associated General Contractors of America that nationwide employment in private-sector construction this year will reach its highest level in a decade.
In fact, the CEO of the AGC of Minnesota conceded to Minnesota business publication Finance & Commerce that construction-sector employment in the state might never be as robust as it was before the recession. “These contractors learned a big lesson in the recession on how to do more with less, and that’s what they are doing,” he told the magazine.
Across industries, the state lost 5,200 jobs in December.