Dive Brief:
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Although construction employment in the Northeast has lagged in recent years, the six states that added the highest percentage of construction workers in May are all in that region, according to the Associated General Contractors.
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Connecticut had the highest percentage growth, while New York added the largest number of jobs for the month, the AGC said.
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Overall, construction firms added jobs in 28 states between April and May, and in 40 between May 2014 and May of this year, the report said.
Dive Insight:
The growth of the construction work force is outpacing job gains across the economy, AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson said in a statement.
Still, 10 states, including West Virginia, which shed 4,200 positions, lost construction jobs in the past year, the report said. And five of the states that lost jobs are the only ones that have bolstered their job corps back to pre-recession levels so far, a slip that Simonson said “shows the industry remains vulnerable” because of a lack of federal infrastructure funding.
