The Improving Outlook for Construction Jobs

March 15, 2012 | Mike Spychalski, CAIA, Vice President

This week’s chart shows the month over month change in construction jobs and the month over month change in annualized housing starts in the U.S. (based on rolling six month averages for each). As the chart illustrates, the steep drop off in housing starts that began in late 2006 resulted in significant job losses in the construction sector starting in mid-2007. The construction sector, which added approximately 1.1 million jobs from January 2003 to December 2006 (an average of about 24,000 jobs a month), lost approximately 2.1 million jobs from January 2007 to December 2010 (an average of about 44,000 jobs per month) according to ADP payroll data. However, over the past several months, a positive trend has started to emerge in new housing starts. This positive trend in housing starts has largely been driven by an increase in construction of multifamily housing units (i.e. apartment buildings) due to the increased demand for apartments (as a result of many households transitioning from homeowners to renters).

While this improvement is a welcome development in the housing market and construction sector, the recent increase in construction jobs is nowhere close to the kind of growth required to make up for the lost construction jobs during the recession and its aftermath. We have had an increase in construction jobs for five consecutive months with approximately 56,000 construction jobs added in the U.S. At this pace, it would take over 15 years to recover all the construction jobs that were lost from January 2007 to December 2010.

Mike Spychalski, CAIA
Vice President

Get to Know Mike

The opinions expressed herein are those of Marquette Associates, Inc. (“Marquette”), and are subject to change without notice. This material is not financial advice or an offer to purchase or sell any product. Marquette reserves the right to modify its current investment strategies and techniques based on changing market dynamics or client needs.

Related Content

10.28.2024

Earnings Don’t Grow to the Sky

Loyal readers of Marquette research publications are likely aware that a small handful of U.S. large-cap technology-oriented stocks, dubbed the…

10.25.2024

A New Tariff in Town?

During his presidential term, Donald Trump increased tariffs on Chinese imports to address unfair trade practices including intellectual property theft….

10.24.2024

3Q 2024 Market Insights

This video is a recording of a live webinar held October 23 by Marquette’s research team analyzing the…

10.17.2024

Mexico Winning the Battle with Inflation

Like many countries in recent years, Mexico has grappled with higher-than-average inflation levels, primarily driven by elevated food and producer…

10.10.2024

The Elusive Small-Cap Revival

U.S. small-cap equities have trailed their larger peers for over 13 years. Although the asset class has shown intermittent signs…

10.03.2024

Can Interest Rate Cuts Revive Private Equity?

It has been well documented that private equity has been experiencing pressures over the past two years, marked by declines…

More articles

Subscribe to Research Email Alerts

Research Email Alert Subscription

Research alerts keep you updated on our latest research publications. Simply enter your contact information, choose the research alerts you would like to receive and click Subscribe. Alerts will be sent as research is published.

We respect your privacy. We will never share or sell your information.

Thank You

We appreciate your interest in Marquette Associates.

If you have questions or need further information, please contact us directly and we will respond to your inquiry within 24 hours.

Contact Us >