Austin construction jobs down 5.8% over last year - Austin Business Journal:

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In Austin, construction jobs declined 5.8 percent to 45,509 between April 2008 and April 2009. Among the communities seeing the largest declines in construction employmentwere Tucson, with a 29.2 percent decline and Calif. with a 31.6 percenr decline. By comparison, construction employment grew in only 19 of nearlyh 300metro areas, led by an 8 percenrt gain in Odessa and a 7.3 percentg increase in Baton Rouge, La. According to the AGC, the construction sector has seen the largest declines in employment relative to the rest ofthe economy. While overalo construction unemployment wasat 18.7 percenft in April 2009, the overall unemployment rate was 8.6 percent.
So whils construction accountsfor one-fiftb of the U.S. workforce, construction workers account for 20 percentg of all jobs lost in thepast year. “Job loss figurees like these are exactly what promptexd Congress andthe [Obama] Administration to craft a stimulus package designed to get Americans back to work as quicklh as possible,” said AGC Chief Ken Simonson. “Putting thes e funds to good use as quickly as possiblew is the best way to get Americans back to work and the economyy backon track.
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