Minnesota construction industry sheds 3,500 jobs in December ...

Construction workers are still braving the cold at locations including Hines Interests? 185-unit Dock Street Apartments, which are going up at 333 Washington Ave. N. in Minneapolis. (STAFF PHOTO: BILL KLOTZ)

Minnesota continued to see strong employment growth in December, but Mother Nature may have dealt the construction industry a bump as the sector shed 3,500 positions.

Last month?s construction jobs decline was likely a blip related to the industry?s winter wind-down starting later because of a mild November, which then affected the seasonally adjusted nature of the numbers, said Steve Hine, research director for DEED?s Labor Market Information Office.

Despite the December decline, construction remained one of the fastest growing sectors year-over-year in Minnesota. Construction employment is up 3,300 jobs, or 3.9 percent, over the past 12 months. The only sector performing better is education and health services, up 22,700 jobs, or 4.8 percent.

The state as a whole gained 9,100 jobs in December, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development said Thursday.

November also turned out to be a better month than previously reported in Minnesota: Jobs were up 12,300 versus the 10,800 initially reported.

The state?s December unemployment rate ticked down a 10th of a percentage point to 5.5 percent; the U.S. unemployment rate was 7.8 percent. Minnesota jobs are up by 50,700 over the past year ? a 1.9 percent growth rate that exceeds the 1.4 percent national rate.

The news could be even better when DEED releases its annual revision of employment numbers on March 5. Hine expects there will be 30,000 more jobs than previously counted, which would leave the state about 15,000 jobs shy of where it was before the Great Recession started.

?We have developed some momentum in the last couple months that was sorely lacking in the middle eight months of the year, especially during the summer,? Hine said.

Hine cautioned that challenges remain. Nearly a third of Minnesota?s unemployed have been without a job for more than half a year and will likely find it increasingly hard to find a new position. Black people in the state are 2.7 times more likely to be unemployed than whites, better than in the past but still a problem. And many new college graduates are unemployed or underemployed.

Still, jobs are coming back, and part of the recovery is the result of an improved housing market that has in turn produced more housing construction.

There were 4,282 housing building permits in the Twin Cities, covering 9,042 units, in 2012 ? about double the 2011 numbers, according to the Excelsior-based Keystone Report.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro is experiencing an apartment building boom that is only now showing some signs of cooling off. Finance and Commerce?s Twin Cities Apartment Development Tracker is following more than 16,000 units under construction, completed or proposed across the Twin Cities.

The later start of wintry weather may have also caused Minnesota residential construction jobs to be slightly down year-over-year in December. But jobs for specialty trades workers such as carpenters, plumbers, painters and electricians ? workers still working on homes in the cold weather ? were still up 3.6 percent.

?I would anticipate that residential construction and specialty trades will likely rebound once warmer weather arrives,? Hine said.

Rich Riemersma of Shoreview-based Imperial Homes says his company is working on a handful of houses right now. Last year, it was a couple. Each home construction project has the potential to hire 30 to 40 subcontractors.

?In general, what I?m seeing is a vast improvement over a year ago,? said Riemersma, a past president of the Builders Association of the Twin Cities. ?It?s not like we?re going to bounce back, but it?s going to be an upward trend. ? I think the dip was definitely just seasonal.?

The Jobs Picture

Minnesota year-over-year employment growth by industry sector in 2012

Total Non-Farm Employment: +50,700 / +1.9%

Logging and Mining: -20 / -0.2%

Construction: +3,300 / +3.9%

Manufacturing: +2,500 / +0.8%

Trade, Transportation and Utilities: +5,600 / +1.1%

Information: +1,800 / +3.4%

Financial Activities: +3,800 / +2.2%

Professional and Business Services: +2,400 / +0.7%

Education and Health Services: +22,700 / +4.8%

Leisure and Hospitality: +3,100 / +1.5%

Other Services: +2,700 / +2.3%

Government: +2,900 / +0.7%

Source: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2013 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Business & Economy, Construction & Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Source: http://finance-commerce.com/2013/01/minnesota-construction-industry-sheds-3500-jobs-in-december/

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