News Archive
1.9 million US construction jobs lost since downturn
Released on 08/02/2010
The unemployment rate in US construction continues to rise, reaching 24.7% in January, its highest level since 2000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.
BLS’s latest monthly employment report, released on Feb. 5, shows that construction's January jobless rate increased from 22.7% in December and 18.2% in January 2009.
Construction lost 75,000 jobs in January, bringing total jobs lost since December 2007 to 1.9 million.
Construction's 24.7% rate is the industry's highest since 2000, when BLS changed its system for classifying industries. The previous high was December’s 22.7%.
Under BLS's pre-2000 classification method, construction's highest jobless rate since 1948 came in February 1983, when it reached 27.3%.
