Summary
The pace of layoffs in the nation’s nonresidential building construction sector slowed in April 2009, according to the May 8 employment report by the U.S. Labor Department. The total number of jobs declined by 9,100 last month. That, in comparison to the 10,600 job loss in March. On a year-over-year basis, nonresidential building construction employment has fallen by 87,700 jobs and now stands at 748,600 (see graph below).
In contrast, the nation’s residential building construction sector lost 12,600 jobs in April, down from 17,500 jobs lost in March. Since April 2008, 146,600 jobs have been lost in the residential building construction industry. Total private construction employment, which includes specialty trade contractors, lost 110,000 jobs in April, but this was much lower than the 135,000 jobs lost in March. On a year-over-year basis, the construction industry has lost nearly 1,000,000 jobs.
Overall, national employment fell by 539,000 for the month. More than 5.2 million jobs have been lost over the past twelve months and roughly 5.7 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. The nation’s unemployment rate now stands at 8.9 percent – the highest level since September 1983.