There were 224,878 men and women working in the New York City’s construction industry in 2011, about the same as in 2010, according to a recent New York Building Congress (NYBC) study.
To increase the number of workers in the city, it’s a “simple prescription,” says Lou Coletti, president and CEO of Building Trades Employers’ Association. “The only thing that is going to create more jobs is more projects,” Coletti says. "We hear that projects are moving forward, but they’re not in the ground yet."