Nonresidential Construction Jobs Dip in First Quarter

ARLINGTON, Va. — Nonresidential construction jobs dropped by 15,400 in March and stimulus package funds may not stem the tide of job losses until late 2009 or 2010, according to a report by Associated Builders and Contractors Inc.

During the first quarter of 2009, 49,800 nonresidential construction jobs were lost, bringing the total number of jobs lost since March 2008 to 90,700, according to statistics from the U.S. Labor Department. The nonresidential construction industry now employs at about 750,000 people.

“The March jobs report did not provide many surprises,” says Anirban Basu, ABC chief economist. “The overall pace of job loss and the corresponding increase in the overall unemployment rate were predicted with near perfection by the community of economists.”

As a growing share of the nation’s nonresidential construction contractors work through much of their remaining backlogs, job losses will continue for several months, he says.

“Unlike previous periods in this economic cycle, the bulk of job losses for the first quarter of 2009 were in the nonresidential sector as opposed to the residential sector,” Basu says. “This suggests that the residential construction sector is much closer to its bottom than the nonresidential construction sector, which is a relative newcomer to the ongoing downturn.”