Local construction employment typically dips during the winter months, but the January tallies show a 12% decline from the year prior and a 16% drop from January 2008. For the first time since February 2007, construction employment fell below 120,000 in October 2009, and has declined each month since then, the Building Congress reports. It peaked at 136,900 jobs in August 2008 as the building boom ebbed.
The figures do not include workers in related industries, including architects and engineers. Nor do they include construction workers who work for government agencies, a labor pool the Building Congress describes as relatively small.
Average earnings for all New York City construction workers dropped to an estimated $63,300 in '09, down from $68,800 in '08 and $65,800 in '07. The figure, which was nonetheless higher than the 2006 average of $61,700, is due partly to declines in the use of overtime pay, according to the Building Congress.
"These numbers are troubling since they speak directly to the human impact of the decline in building activity," says Building Congress president Richard T. Anderson in a statement. He adds, "As much as possible, we need to ensure that federal stimulus dollars are put to work quickly on shovel-ready projects and that government is working closely with the private sector to ensure that residential, office and institutional development projects are able to move swiftly as demand rises and the credit markets open up."
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Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
