Construction Jobs Down
The housing boom was nice (while it lasted) for folks who’d bought well-located homes before it began, but it was also great for people working in the building trades, a field that continued to offer decent blue collar jobs at a time when manufacturing was taking a beating. But then came the downturn. And now comes the news that “Housing construction falls larger-than-expected amount in August to lowest level in 17 years.”
In light of the housing situation, this is natural and inevitable. And in some respects, it’s even good. The country’s population continues to grow and part of what’s needed to mop up the excess supply of housing is to just chill out on building new stuff for a while, especially in those once-booming exurbs, until demand catches up and then we can start building again. And some jobs lost in the construction sector should reappear as manufacturing jobs as a sliding dollar boosts exports and cuts imports. But the transition could be extremely painful, especially if American problems lead to weak demand worldwide which will make it difficult for export sectors to provide jobs. This is why we could use something like the green recovery program that will help make up for these lost construction jobs by building the infrastructure we need for the 21st century.
23 Responses to “Construction Jobs Down”
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September 17th, 2008 at 9:01 am
There are good housing starts and bad housing starts. It would be interesting to know whether the data is classified by type (urban, suburban, exurban/rural) or just by state and region. More urban starts and fewer exurban ones would be peachy.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Off-topic.
E. O’Neal says Obama isn’t qualified/capable of running a company. Warren Buffet says he would put Obama “in charge of a business.” I’m going to side with Buffet on this one and say Obama probably has the goods to be CEO of a company. No offense E. O’Neal, but Buffet has credibility where you have none.
E. O’Neal says the fundamentals of the economy are strong b/c we produce good and services of $45,000 per person. But E. O’Neal ignores the fact that the private sector has lost jobs every month since December and that our country has NEVER previously lost jobs for even three consecutive months apart from periods tied to a recession. Fundamentals don’t look good from where I’m sitting.
E. O’Neal says Sarah Palin was against the Bridge to Nowhere, when in fact NUMEROUS independent sources have concluded that that is an outright lie. Palin says Alaska produces 20% of the US’s energy when in fact is it less than 4%. McCain says Palin has taken earmarks as Governor of Alaska when in fact she has taken nearly $200 million.
I’m starting to see a trend with the credibility of E. O’Neal, Palin, and McCain.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I was just thinking that on the way to work this morning. However, while it might ameliorate unemployment in the unskilled labor part of construction, public works tend to use less of the trades, like carpenters, plumbers and electricians.
Another problem is that most of these projects are funded by local governments which are facing revenue crunches due to reduced fees for building permits and less property tax collection.
You know what would be nice around now? A federal government that hadn’t unnecessarily burdened itself with debt which could target large amounts of infrastructure spending where it would do the most good.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Speaking of declines, I checked http://WWW.MSN.COM’s Money site to see what today held for the markets, based on futures, and briefly startled by the following:
[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -1236.80. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -3610.00. Futures point to a sharply lower start for the stock market.
“sharply lower” . . . Huh!
September 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Just wait until the Boomers retire and start downsizing (selling 2nd homes for liquidity, moving to nursing homes). When that happens, it will take as so long to mop up supply that the houses will start falling apart first.
There is going to be a lot of bulldozing going on in this country.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:57 am
I agree with Walker–in particular, a lot of shoddier-built exurb developments may be destined for the bulldozer. And that may be happening even as new developments are going on. Indeed, as Walker implies, we were already due for a long term shift in the housing mix thanks to the anticipated demographic shift.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:27 am
By the way, on the building trades issue: Matt describes a “green recovery program” as an infrastructure program, but of course that is only one component. Indeed, if you click through his link they are also talking about things like “Retrofitting buildings to increase energy efficiency”, plus a bunch of investments in new manufacturing. All that sounds like work for the trades to me.
September 18th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Adding to the fuel supplying reactors can mean big money for LES, and especially for Urenco Ltd. Construction Jobs
December 15th, 2008 at 6:22 am
NEW YORK (Associated Press) – A government report on new-home construction and building permit applications for October is forecast to show declines for the fourth straight month as the housing sector is pulled down by falling prices,
December 15th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Many bridges and roads need repair, this is very true. Skilled Tradesmen provide alot of the skilled needed to accomplish this strategy.
Construction Jobs are not drying up with staffing companies, if you need to staff temporary skilled tradesmen check out your options with a contractor service provider.
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