Housing starts in the United States have nearly doubled over the last two years, but residential construction jobs aren’t keeping pace. In fact, says a report in The New York Times, construction employment actually fell slightly in April to about 5.8 million–roughly the same as it was in 1997.
With lots of new houses underway, shouldn’t the number of construction jobs also be showing the same surge? Economists have been trying to explain the apparent contraction and so far have come up with a few theories:
- Housing starts are just that: starts. Overall, the number of new projects is still relatively low, the newspaper said, so the number of jobs in the field hasn’t expanded much.
- Skilled workers are hard to find in some markets. Although wages don’t seem to be going up, it’s possible that workers are being paid under the table, or are getting more work hours in a week.
Builders, however, eventually will have to add to their payrolls if demand for housing continues to increase. If employment figures aren’t yet dazzling, better times may be ahead.
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