R.I. construction employment falls

PROVIDENCE – Construction employment in the Providence metropolitan area dipped 10 percent in December compared with the same month in 2009, the Associated General Contractors of America said this week.
The association said the industry employed 18,000 people in the metro area, which includes Fall River and New Bedford. That was down from 20,000 people in December 2009.
The Providence area was one of 232 metro areas to lose jobs in December compared with the same month in the prior year.
“It looks like severe winter weather put an early halt to a number of projects just as stimulus and base realignment work was already starting to wind down,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “Bad weather and poor timing conspired to make December a pretty unhappy month for a lot of construction workers around the country.”
The association said that 26 metro areas lost a greater percentage of their construction workforces than Rhode Island in December compared with the same month in 2009.