Construction employment grows in November in Prov. metro

 A CREW OF students from the Warwick Area Career and Tech Center work on a building at 828 Tollgate Road, Warwick. The Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area experienced 4 percent year-over-year growth in construction employment in November, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.
 / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
A CREW OF students from the Warwick Area Career and Tech Center work on a building at 828 Tollgate Road, Warwick. The Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area experienced 4 percent year-over-year growth in construction employment in November, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

PROVIDENCE – The Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area ranked No. 153 among 339 metropolitan areas around the nation in November in terms of construction employment with 4 percent year-over-year growth, according to information released Tuesday by the Associated General Contractors of America.

The Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro added 900 jobs, bringing construction employment to 22,300 in November. Ranking No. 1 was Pascagoula, Miss., with 24 percent growth year over year, for a total of 7,700 jobs. Last was Steubenville-Weirton, Ohio-West Virginia, which lost 900 jobs, a 39 percent drop, for a total of 1,400 jobs.

The Providence area was one of 224 metros nationwide that saw construction employment expand. Construction employment declined in 64 metro areas and was stagnant in 51 year over year.

Statewide, the Ocean State gained 700 construction jobs in November compared with the prior year period, a 4 percent increase, bringing total construction employment to 17,900.

- Advertisement -

Association officials said contractors in many parts of the country have benefited from growing demand, but are continuing to experience labor shortages that threaten to undermine the sector’s recovery.
“It is good news that construction employment is now rising in two-thirds of the nation’s metro areas,” Ken Simonson, chief economist for the association, said in a statement. “But now that the unemployment rate for construction workers has fallen to a seven-year low, it has become a major challenge to find qualified workers in many fields.”

Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, added the largest number of construction jobs in the past year (16,200 jobs, 9 percent), followed by Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas (11,000 jobs, 10 percent), Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Ill. (9,100 jobs, 7 percent), and Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash. (8,900 jobs, 12 percent).

The largest job losses from November 2013 to November 2014 were in Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, Md. (-3,600 jobs, -11 percent), followed by Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz. (-3,000 jobs, -3 percent), Edison-New Brunswick N.J. (-2,700 jobs, -6 percent), Gary, Ind. (-2,500 jobs, -14 percent), and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. (-2,500 jobs, -4 percent).

Association officials noted that most contractors report they are having a hard time finding qualified workers to fill key positions as demand rebounds. They said that contractors may have to pass on new projects, and possibly delay existing ones, if this trend persists.

They said 25 percent of contractors reported over the summer they were already declining to bid on certain projects because of the worker shortage.
“Without a solid network for preparing future workers, we are likely to spend much of 2015 talking about how the construction industry is failing to keep up with demand,” Stephen E. Sandherr, the association’s CEO, said in a statement.
View construction employment figures HERE.

No posts to display