State added construction jobs in May

BOULDER – About 2,000 new construction jobs were added across the state in May compared with April, including many in Boulder County, according to statistics compiled by the Associated General Contractors of America Colorado Building chapter.

While there are no specific numbers for Boulder County, in general, the region has been doing better than the state because of public projects and some “green” energy work, said Michael Gifford, executive director of the Colorado chapter of the national trade group. Boulder County received a $12 million grant in January for residential and commercial energy efficiency projects as part of a federal grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the U.S. Department of Energy.

Statewide, there were 106,700 construction jobs in May, a 1.9 percent increase compared with the 104,700 construction jobs in April 2011, Gifford said.

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“Boulder is doing slightly better than Colorado as a whole – the construction loss numbers are not as steep,” Gifford said.

Construction employment peaked in May 2007 at 169,500 jobs, Gifford said, and bottomed out at the 104,700 construction jobs in April 2011. Colorado ranked near the bottom in terms of the number of construction industry jobs in May – 47 out of 50 states, Gifford said. Much of the industry losses in Colorado were in residential building, he said.

There does not appear to be one specific construction project driving the increase, Gifford said.

“Residential building has gone down about 90 percent, so it didn’t have any further to fall,” Gifford said. “If you do nothing else but stop the free flow of residential and you have a few commercial projects, we have a chance to increase and go the other way.”

Nationally, construction employment peaked in April 2006 and fell 29 percent to a low in January 2011, said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the national office of the construction trade group. Simonson is bullish on the construction industry for the rest of 2011.

“I expect construction spending and employment to improve gradually and unevenly over the next year,” Simonson said in an email.

Other bright spots this year could be rental apartment construction, hospital, manufacturing, hotel and warehouse construction, Simonson said. Public construction being built with federal, state and local funds is likely to decline, he said.