Construction Jobless Rate Climbs to 24.7% in January

Construction's unemployment rate continues to rise, reaching 24.7% in January, its highest level since 2000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

BLS's latest monthly employment report, released on Feb. 5, shows that contruction's January jobless rate increased from 22.7% in December and 18.2% in January 2009.

Construction lost 75,000 jobs in January, bringing total jobs lost since December 2007 to 1.9 million.

Construction's 24.7% rate is the industry's highest since 2000, when BLS changed its system for classifying industries. The previous high was December's 22.7%.

Under BLS's pre-2000 classification method, construction's highest jobless rate since 1948 came in February 1983, when it reached 27.3%.

Construction Unemployment Rate
2010
Month	Rate in %
January	24.7%
2009
December	22.7%
November	19.4%
October	18.7%
Spetember	17.1%
August	16.5
July	18.2
June	17.4
May	19.2
April	18.7
March	21.1
February	21.4
January	18.2
Note: Rates are not seasonally adjusted. Source: U.S. Dept. of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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