construction job gains recorded in arizona and other western states

The booming metropolis of Mesa, Phoenix, and Scottsdale, Arizona continues to add construction jobs, according to a new report just released by the Associated General Contractors.

The report, Metro Area Construction Employment Data, shows a gain of nearly 14,000 new construction jobs in the Mesa-Phoenix-Scottsdale market, leading the nation for the most new industry jobs in the country.

That works out to an 11 percent job gain in the 12-month period between March of 2018 and March of this year, with the overall number of jobs jumping from 121,000 to 134,000.

Of the top ten metro areas for job growth charted by the AGC report, six were in the West, two were in New York State, and the remaining two were in the Midwest and South.

The other big Western gainers were the Dallas-Plano-Irving area, which saw a 5 percent job growth increase, with the number of jobs increasing by 7,400 for a total of nearly 149,000; and the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise area, where more than 6,600 new construction jobs were created for an 11 percent yearly gain.

The areas that saw the biggest construction job losses during that same time period include the Chicago metro area, which shed more than 3,000 jobs; metro Kansas City, off by 2,000 jobs; and the Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine area, also down by 2,000 jobs.

Overall, construction employment was up nationally in 218 out of 358 metro areas.

In a statement analyzing those numbers, Ken Simonson, the AGC’s chief economist, said “Fewer metros than in recent months recorded construction employment gains over the past year.”

But Simonson added that the “ongoing increase in spending on most categories of construction suggests that the lack of job growth is more likely due to a scarcity of qualified workers rather than a slowing of demand.”

By Garry Boulard

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