Friday June 5, 10:15 PM
Fewer US construction job losses in May
By Lisa Lambert
WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - The frantic pace of job losses in the U.S. construction industry may have slowed in May, but it is still far from showing clear signs of stopping, economists and industry experts said on Friday.
President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan, passed this winter, has yet to create or save the nearly 3 million jobs it was intended to by funding capital works projects, they said.
The plan was enacted in February. But most projects, which are outdoor and require warm weather, could not begin until the spring. The May jobs report released by the Labor Department on Friday hinted that those projects may indeed be saving jobs.
The industry lost 59,000 jobs in May, roughly half the positions it shed the previous month and the smallest loss since August. Nonresidential construction, which would include many stimulus projects, lost 1,400 jobs, compared with the 11,200 positions shed in April.
Still, economist Ken Simonson, of the Associated General Contractors of America, said those are still lost jobs.
'Today's employment report shows little relief for non-residential construction,' Simonson said in a call with reporters. 'The unemployment rate was horrendous. The unemployment rate for construction was 19.2 percent, compared to 9.1 percent for the economy as a whole, not seasonally adjusted.'
Simonson said there was no seasonally adjusted rate for construction that could be compared to the national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 9.4 percent. The seasonally-adjusted figure has been smoothed out to consider factors related to the time of year.
Non-residential construction 'still has a ways to fall,' he said.
The Laborers' International Union of North America, which lobbied for the recovery act, said Friday's report was encouraging but showed the federal government needs to do more to help 1,434,000 workers who have lost their jobs since the housing market downturn began in 2007.
The stimulus plan has helped cut the number of construction jobs lost, 'but even after the investments to build America take full effect -- expected to create about 700,000 construction jobs -- there will still be more than 1 million construction workers looking for work,' LIUNA General President Terry O'Sullivan said in a statement.
Speaking on the same call as Simonson, contractors from across the country said that by winning bids on stimulus projects, or simply knowing projects will soon be open to bid, they have kept staff they had planned to lay off.
Rick Harlan, president of construction company A.M. Cohron & Sons, Inc, said the staff levels at his Iowa company have dropped to 108 from 240 employees since 2007. Promise (Frankfurt: 887932 - news) of stimulus work led him to retain 24 workers he would have let go and he hopes that as projects come to the Midwest, he will add 42 workers this summer.
Construction worker Tracy Williams told the call the recovery act had helped her find employment. But she added, 'I don't feel that the stimulus has yet to complete its mission.'
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert) Keywords: USA INFRASTRUCTURE/JOBS
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