Construction’s unemployment rate rose slightly, to 17.2% in March, from February’s 17.1%, as the industry lost an estimated 7,000 jobs last month. But the rate was better than March 2011's mark of 20%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest monthly status report on the employment picture, released on April 6, showed that jobs lost in the buildings-construction sector outweighed gains in the heavy-civil and residential specialty trades segments.