News media highlighted Friday's announcement from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the nation's non-farm payrolls were up by 200,000 jobs in December, but a look inside the data showed new construction jobs were not enough to keep the jobless rate there from rising to 16 percent.
"Construction employment changed little in December. Within the industry, nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 20,000 jobs over the month, mostly offsetting losses over the prior two months," the BLS said. The industry gave up 22,000 jobs in October and November. The BLS seasonally adjusted tables, however, showed 17,000 more jobs.
For the overall workforce, the unemployment rate fell from 8.6 percent to 8.5 percent.
"As construction’s winter slowdown began, the industry’s unemployment rate worsened in December to 16 percent, from 13.1 percent in November," Engineering News Record reported. In December 2010, the rate stood at 20.7 percent.
In addition to 20,200nonresidential specialty trade jobs, residential building firms picked up 2,500 workers, ENR added. "Those increases were offset a bit by declines in the residential specialty trade, nonresidential building, and heavy/civil segments," the magazine found.
In the overall job count, The Wall Street Journal reported, "Private companies added 212,000 jobs, while the public sector – federal, state and local governments – shrank by 12,000.
