D-FW Tops the Country With Gains in Construction Jobs in March

D-FW Tops the Country With Gains in Construction Jobs in March

Construction sector employment in March fell in almost 100 markets around the country. But the Dallas-Fort Worth area added more than 10,000 building jobs — the biggest such gain in the country, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.

D-FW construction jobs were up about 7% from a year ago, even as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most parts of the local economy. The largest percentage losses in construction employment in March were in Laredo and Lake Charles, La., which both saw building jobs fall 19%. 

“These new figures foreshadow even larger declines in construction employment throughout the country as the pandemic’s economic damage grows more severe,” Ken Simonson, the contractors association’s chief economist, said in the report. “Unfortunately, the data for April and later months are sure to be much worse. In our latest survey, more than one-third of firms report they had furloughed or terminated workers — a direct result of growing cancellations.”

Austin, Houston and San Antonio also made the list of markets with construction job increases in March.

Nationwide, almost 70% of construction firms reported in an April 20-23 survey that projects have been canceled or delayed because of the pandemic. More than 1 in 5 contractors said they expect a significant decrease in profit margins, according to a survey by the Associated Builders and Contractors.

North Texas has been one of the country’s top construction markets in the past few years, second only to New York City. NYC had an almost 3,500-worker drop in building sector employment in the most recent survey.

This year started out with expectations for a building boom in many parts of the country.

“In the course of a month, construction industry confidence has shifted from ecstatic to utterly dismayed,” Associated Builders and Contractors’ chief economist, Anirban Basu, said in a statement. “If anything, confidence is likely to decline further as construction industry leaders come to terms with the full extent of the COVID-19 crisis.

“Normally, construction activity is partially shielded from the initial stages of downturn due to the presence of backlog, which stood at 8.2 months as of February 2020,” said Basu. “But this time is at least somewhat different, with certain construction activities halted in California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and elsewhere...

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