Dallas-area Construction Jobs Are Up From a Year Ago
The Dallas area has mostly recovered from the loss of construction jobs early in the pandemic. As of August, the Dallas area reported a more-than-2,800-worker increase in construction employment from the year before, according to a new report from the Associated General Contractors. Dallas' building sector job gain is in contrast to the rest of the country, where two-thirds of metro areas have lost construction employment due to the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting recession.
“Although residential construction is picking up in many areas, public and nonresidential construction are shrinking,” Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, said in a statement. “Project cancellations are spreading, and fewer new projects are starting up. That combination makes further employment declines inevitable unless the federal government steps up support for infrastructure.”
Dallas had one of the largest year-over-year construction job gains in the U.S., along with Indianapolis (up 4,800 jobs), Baltimore-Columbia, Md. (4,300 jobs), Kansas City (3,600) and Austin (2,800). The Houston area lost the most construction jobs during the year ending August, with a decline of 22,800 building industry workers. The New York area lost 21,700 construction jobs, and Midland has seen an 11,300-job decline in construction workers since last August.
Dallas' construction sector had suffered an annual decline of 5,600 jobs in April but has slowly added back workers as the impact of the pandemic has declined locally. The Fort Worth side of the metro area was still down 4,600 building jobs from August 2019 levels, according to the Associated General Contractors.
Construction of single-family homes and industrial space has soared in North Texas during the pandemic, while building starts for apartments, offices, retail and hotels have slowed.
Dallas already had one of the most vibrant construction markets in the country as of last year, so the increase in the latest numbers is significant. More than 155,000 people are employed in the local building sector, according to the Associated General Contractors.
As of August, Texas was still missing almost 40,000 construction workers compared with employment a year earlier. Total employment in Dallas-Fort Worth was down by 141,000 jobs for the 12 months ending August, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics...
