highway, street, and bridge construction sees slight march dip

Although overall employment in the nation’s construction industry continues to post gains, the highway, street, and bridge sectors lost more than 2,100 workers last March, over March of the previous year.

Those numbers, compiled by the Washington-based American Road & Transportation Builders Association, specifically show that highway, street, and bridge construction fell just under 277,600 in March, compared to the more 279,700 recorded in March of 2017.

The ARTBA report also indicates that employment in the industry’s stone mining and quarrying sectors has increased in the last year from 40,400 to 41,700, while the job rate in the ready mix concrete sectors is up from 90,300 to 91,600.

One of the biggest gains from March of 2017 to March of this year was seen in the construction machinery sector, with job employment jumping from 64,100 to 73,600.

Although the highway, street, and bridge construction total employment at 277,600 is on the downside, those numbers, according to the ARTBA, are still substantially higher than the numbers recorded in 2010 during the depths of the Great Recession, which came in at 236,000.

By Garry Boulard