Thirty-six states lost construction jobs in 2010, as the industry shrank by 93,000 employees nationally, the Associated General Contractors of America reported in an analysis of state employment data released this week by the Labor Department. “While it is nice to see the industry adding jobs in the most states since February 2008, the challenges facing this industry are still very severe,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “Despite slight improvements in the construction employment picture, the industry is coping with weak demand, declining stimulus activity and a growing political aversion to investing in aging infrastructure.” Simonson noted that
New construction starts in December climbed 19% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $450.2 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Cos. Nonresidential building rebounded after a weak November, and nonbuilding construction was lifted by the start of several large electric utility projects. Meanwhile, residential building in December showed slight growth, continuing the gradual upward trend of recent months. For 2010 as a whole, total construction starts dropped 2% to $412.5 billion, a less severe decline than the 24% plunge for 2009. Courtesy of McGraw-Hill Analytics “This won't be an easy year for most firms, but
More construction firms are planning to hire workers this year than are planning to make layoffs, according to the results of an industry-wide survey released this week by the Associated General Contractors of America and Navigant. The survey, conducted as part of the Construction Industry Hiring and Business Outlook, shows the industry may finally be emerging from a severe downturn that has left millions of skilled workers unemployed. “This won't be an easy year for most firms, but it will be better than last year,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's chief executive officer. “If current trends continue, this industry
Colorado business leaders� confidence bounced back to pre-recession levels going into the first quarter of 2011, according to the most recent quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index, or LBCI, released last week by the University of Colorado at Boulder�s Leeds School of Business. For the first quarter of 2011, the LBCI posted a reading of 54.8—just shy of the 54.9 registered in the second quarter of 2007—up from 48.6 last quarter. Business leaders are optimistic about industry sales, profits, employment, capital expenditures and state economic growth. While the index overall is quite strong, certain components are much stronger than others, according
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has appointed Don Hunt as executive director of the Colorado Dept. of Transportation. Hunt was most recently president of Denver-based Antero, where he specialized in project development and management. While at Antero, Hunt was appointed by Hickenlooper to implement and manage the $550-million Denver Bond program. “Donald Hunt has the depth and breadth of experience to tackle the wide variety of transportation issues facing Colorado,” Hickenlooper said. “Colorado’s transportation needs are as varied as its scenery. Don is one of the country’s finest transportation thinkers, and he knows how to bring projects in on time and
Vestas finished 2010 with a record number of wind-turbine sales in North America � 15 total � resulting in 1,883MW and 871 wind turbines. That was the wind-energy company�s best sales performance for the region since Vestas entered the North American market in 1981. Vestas’ previous sales record for North America was 1,554MW in 2007. Other company highlights in 2010 included: • Ten orders from U.S. customers (1,513 MW), five orders from Canadian customers (370 MW); • The largest order for a single site — 190 V90-3.0 MW turbines for Terra-Gen’s Alta Wind Energy Center in California; • A five-year
National Trench Safety LLC, a Houston-based company specializing in the rental and sales of trench and traffic safety equipment as well as OSHA-compliant training classes, has opened a new branch in Salt Lake City. “We are very excited about our new Salt Lake City operation,” said Ron Chilton, president of NTS. “Salt Lake City is the largest metropolitan population area in the state of Utah and the city and state has experienced a strong level of sustained infrastructure growth over the last few years. Salt Lake City is also centrally located in the state, which allows us to cover a
Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a percentage point to 8.6% in November, according to Donald J. Mares, executive director for the Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment. “For the first time in three years, we’ve now had three consecutive months of wage and salary job growth,” Mares said. “While the unemployment rate is increasing at the same time we’re adding jobs, this seeming contradiction is easily explained by the number of people returning to the labor force this month.” The number of working Coloradans fell 2,400 over the month to 2,433,900, while the civilian labor force increased
Tens of millions of dollars in flood control projects and a new bridge put in place after record flooding in November 2005 were put to the test in late December as winter rains deluged the Southern Utah city of St. George and smaller surrounding towns in Washington County. Starting around Dec. 21, heavy rains began swelling the Santa Clara and Virgin rivers. Local and state officials and engineers who had overseen about $75-million worth of work on new dykes, rechanneling and the $6.2-million replacement of a major connector bridge watched closely to see if their efforts had paid off. “I
A team from the Omaha District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with the Department of the Army and the Department of Public Works at Fort Carson to quietly turn the post into one of the �greenest places on earth.� Since 2007, more than 70 new buildings have been programmed for construction at Fort Carson. Currently, 12 of those projects have resulted in 26 buildings achieving the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification: 13 have achieved LEED Gold and another 13 are LEED Silver. Those 26 buildings make Fort Carson one of the highest-concentrated areas of LEED-certified