The U. S. Labor Department announced that
unemployment in the construction sector of the economy hit a six year low of
8.5% in September, though construction unemployment is still higher than the
7.3% unemployment in the overall economy.
In the last 12 months
employment in construction jobs increased 3.4%. Hours worked weekly by
construction company employees rose 4.2% over the same one year period, showing
that tradespeople are putting in longer work weeks, in addition to the time
worked by new hires.
Since
2010, unemployment in construction has declined from a high of 17.2% to the
current 8.5%, demonstrating that construction industry unemployment has dropped
by more than half from its peak.
