US – Nine years after the bust began, construction employment has made up only about a third of its losses

The labor market for construction workers suffered a massive shock in the wake of the housing bust, as demand for new homes dried up and firms rapidly shed workers. Employment in the construction sector fell nearly 25 percent from more than 11-1/2 million in 2006 to about 9 million in 2010. Even though the construction sector employs only about 7 percent of total employment, it accounted for about half of the economy-wide drop in employment over that period. Figure 1 shows the evolution of construction and non-construction employment, relative to their 2006 levels. Since 2010, the recovery in the construction sector has been exceptionally slow: Nine years after the bust began, construction employment has made up only about a third of its losses, even as non-construction employment has substantially exceeded its previous peak.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Where Are The Construction Workers? | The Big Picture.