Magic Pot of Jobs

The high number of Tucson construction jobs lost during the last year places the city among the worst in the nation for employment in the industry.

A recent report from the Associated General Contractors of America ranked Tucson 326th in the country for construction employment, tied with Phoenix for the lowest ranking among cities in Arizona. From October 2008 to October 2009, Tucson lost 5,400 construction jobs, or 25 percent of employment in the industry.

During October, Tucson’s construction industry employed 15,800 workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is down from 16,200 workers during September. The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area’s construction industry employed 101,400 workers during October, which is down from 103,100 workers during September.

The Phoenix metro area lost 33,000 construction jobs during the 12-month period, also accounting for a 25 percent decrease in employment. Among other Arizona cities included in the report, Yuma was tied with Lake Havasu-Kingman, ranked 292nd with a 20 percent loss each. Flagstaff and Prescott were ranked 321st with a 24 percent loss each.

Overall, only the top five of the 337 markets included in the report managed to add construction jobs over the year. Those include: Columbus, Ind., with a 20 percent increase; Anderson, Ind., with a 6 percent increase; Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa., with a 5 percent increase; Tulsa, Okla., with a 3 percent increase; and Davenport, Iowa, with a 1 percent increase.

The bottom five cities for construction employment included: Cleveland with a 28 percent decrease; El Centro, Calif., with a 29 percent decrease; Redding, Calif., with a 30 percent decrease; Kokomo, Ind., with a 31 percent decrease; and Reno-Sparks, Nev., with a 32 percent decrease.

Tags: Tucson construction jobs

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Construction, Job Search, Tucson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.