Dive Brief:
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Unemployment among construction workers fell to 7.5% in November as the industry added 20,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Residential builders and specialty trade contractors accounted for 16,700 of the new positions, while the nonresidential building sector hired 3,600 workers in November, according to an analysis of the government numbers by Associated General Contractors.
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The heavy construction and civil engineering construction sectors lost 1,400 jobs in November, and nonresidential building construction lost 2,400 jobs.
Dive Insight:
The loss of jobs in the nonresidential sector led Associated General Contractors to call on Congress and the president to pass a new highway and transit bill, which is expected to create jobs. “If Washington could figure out how to pay for and enact” the bill and other infrastructure-construction measures, noted Stephen E. Sandherr, the association’s CEO, it would bolster what some are calling a “weakening” construction industry.