Recent posts by Josh Lehner at the Office of Economic Analysis and Tim Duy at the University of Oregon discuss how the increase in housing starts in 2012 did not lead to much of an increase in the number of construction jobs got us wondering when the industry will start hiring again. As Josh Lehner notes in his post “…housing starts in December were up nearly 40 percent from a year earlier while construction employment was only up 1.6 percent” and the elevated ratio of construction industry jobs to housing starts in Oregon suggests that construction firms still can build more houses with their existing workers.
Oregon businesses do seem interested in hiring more construction workers. According to The Conference Board's Help Wanted Online (HWOL) series, the number of online advertisements posted for construction and extraction jobs in January 2013 increased by 44 percent over the year (all ads were up by 18%). The demand for construction workers is seasonal, as can be seen in the graph, but the 12-month moving average clearly trended up throughout 2012.
The increase
in hiring demand for construction workers does not automatically lead to job
growth in the construction industry. The construction industry employment used
in Josh’s and Tim’s posts is by industry, which includes a variety of jobs in
non-construction occupations. The construction and extraction occupations
counted by HWOL include advertisements posted by non-construction
businesses. An increase in the number of
advertisements can also reflect increased churn in the industry without a net
gain in the number of workers. However, the HWOL series indicates increased
opportunities for workers with construction related skills and experience.
Today's post comes from our guest blog author -- and state employment economist -- Nick Beleiciks.
1 comment:
Awesome post for workers whose demand rise day by day..Thanks for this usefull information. great blog! keep up the great work!
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