Construction Employment at 15-Month High

September 6, 2011 under Articles
Building construction

Image by Toban Black via Flickr

There’s good news from the job front, if you are in the construction industry. According to a recent study by the Associated General Contractors of America, construction employment hit a 15-month high for July this year. For those workers hit especially hard by the recession, this is music to their ears.

TheUnited Statesadded 8,000 construction jobs last month, and unemployment rates in the industry fell from 17.3% from a year ago to 13.6%. This does not necessarily mean that anyone who knows how to wear a hard hat and wield a hammer is in the clear.

In comparison to other sectors of the workforce, the construction industry is still lagging. According to a recent article in the LA Times, workers in other trades may be faring much better than construction workers. The retail industry added 26,000 jobs last month, and the manufacturing industry added 24,000 jobs. These numbers dwarf the mere 8,000 jobs added by the construction industry last month.

Even in relation to its own industry, construction still has a long way to come. For the month of July, employment in construction was at 5.5 million, which is 28% lower than its peak level in April 2006. Even though overall construction employment is up, some areas of the industry are struggling while others are booming.

Construction workers in nonresidential building and specialty trade are doing especially well, with 10,200 jobs added in July. This is a strong indicator that factories, power projects and hospitals are being built, whereas the fall of the housing market is still impeding new house construction.

Residential building lost 1,600 jobs in July. It’s no surprise to anyone that the housing market is still struggling, and therefore building new houses is not a top priority. More than 25% of the homes sold last year were foreclosures. Why buy a new house when you can get one from the bank for a fraction of the cost? Unless you are a McMillionaire, this idea makes a lot of sense.

According to a recent survey conducted by Trulia.com and RealtyTrac, the housing market may not fully recover until 2014. As of last December, they had predicted that 2012 would be the year for housing to bounce back. After extensive research done this year, the numbers show that the market is a little more downtrodden than originally presumed.

Of course every silver lining has a touch of grey, to quote the Grateful Dead. You have to take the bad with the good. The construction industry may be doing a little better than last year, but there is a long path toward full economic recovery in all industries. Either way, it’s good for everyone to read the news and see something positive in terms of hiring and the job market.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , ,

Job Openings Hit Two-and-a-half Year High

May 13, 2011 under Articles
unemployement rates in OECD countries and in F...

Image via Wikipedia

Good news from the job front! In the seemingly bleak climate of layoffs and unemployment, it’s good to hear that for the month of March this year, job openings were at their highest since September 2008. The Labor Department reported that the number of listings rose by 99,000 to reach 3.1 million in March. And the even-better news; it looks this is a trend that will continue for months to come.

I know we have all been worried about where the job market is headed. Are high gas prices affecting the situation? Will I continue to be out of work forever? How many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches can I really eat? And so on and so forth.

So it is quite reassuring and refreshing to hear good news like this. The 3.1 million mark that we saw in March is nowhere near the pre-recession levels, but it is definitely a good start. When the recession began in December 2007 there were 4.4 million job openings. So we have got some make-up work to do in the job growth area, but it’s getting there.

Overall, these numbers are a strong indicator that the labor market recovery is on the right track. The areas of the workforce in which there are the most openings are in the private sector, such as jobs in education and health services, government agencies and retailers. The sectors that are lacking the most in job growth are those in professional and business services, which actually showed fewer openings in March than the month before.

Since March, job growth has continued to increase. In April, employers added 244,000 new jobs, the highest amount in 11 months. This shows a small increase from March, when 221,000 new jobs were added.

But as I already said, this does not mean that we are by any means in the clear. There were still 13.5 million unemployed in March. This shows a ratio higher than 4:1 in out-of-work persons to job openings, which is why we are still hovering right below a 10% unemployment rate.

It is nice to see all these numbers and maybe even catch a little bit of hope from them. But what does all this mean for you, the job seeker? Basically it means that you still have to work very hard to find a job. Sometimes finding a job is even harder than actually working one, especially when you’re not even getting paid for it.

You have to update your resume, write cover letters, spend hours searching for openings, avoid scammers and stress out about when you can start paying your bills again. The job search market is not an easy one. It takes determination and perseverance to come up with gainful employment in this market.

One of the most important things you can do is utilize your resources. Dig up old contacts that now have good jobs. Don’t be ashamed to call someone you haven’t talked to in years about leads on a job. Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes.

We have all heard it before, and it is quite true: “It’s all about who you know.” If you know someone with a good job that has any sort of pull concerning new hires, then jump on that opportunity as soon as possible. If you know somebody who can get you a job, you don’t even need a resume. It is in fact all about who you know.

 

Related articles
comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , ,