Jacksonville adds third-most construction jobs in Florida in 2012

[thelakelander]

Alright. Can we finally put to rest the idea of a mobility fee moratorium? Looks like the market is handling itself and the real issue is that we aren't going to create the amount of construction jobs we had at the height of last decades real estate boom.

Jacksonville added the third-most construction jobs in the last year, according to The Associated General Contractors of America. The AGC pulled data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and compared January 2012 to January 2013, and the results for Jacksonville look good â€" a net gain of 1,400 jobs. That represents about a 5 percent growth and ranks No. 72 in the nation. Jacksonville was surpassed only by Ft. Lauderdale (3,200) and Tampa (2,100).

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/03/22/jacksonville-adds-third-most.html

[Overstreet]

I find that interesting. In Jan 2012 I had daily counts of 500 on the job site. In January  2013we were down to 20 to 30 depending upon the day. Today in March it is six. True many of those are at other places. Numbers are always interesting.

[thelakelander]

On what job site?

[sheclown]

Of course construction is up.  Ask anyone who slings a hammer.

Will it return to bubble days?  No.  Then again, do we want another crash?

Is it good enough to scramble food for the family.  Yes. 

[Dog Walker]

Councilman Lumb questions this report.  He says that the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows construction jobs flat for the past year.

[strider]

I know from personal experience that small residential work is up and up a lot. We have full time employees again and are most definitely adding to the numbers being discussed here.   I would guess that most of the large construction jobs are not hiring local very much anyway and so do not help nor hinder the local economy.

[edjax]

It seems to me they would instead use the data to show that because of the moratorium it allowed the construction jobs to come back by increased activity?  Since these additional jobs did come about during the moratorium.  Of course we know that is most likely not the reason but we know they have a history of fuzzy math with numbers.

[JeffreyS]

Councilman Lumb questions this report.  He says that the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows construction jobs flat for the past year.

If he trusts the BLS report he should look at the first 2 month of 2013 they are the best in constructions since 2007.

[JeffreyS]

Construction employment increased by 48,000 in February, bringing the current 3-month change to 111,000. This increase represents an acceleration over the 43,000 jobs that were added in the 3 months ending in November 2012.
The February job gain in construction is the largest 1-month increase since March 2007 when 80,000 jobs were added. Since reaching an employment trough in January 2011, the industry has added 349,000 jobs

http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/ceshighlights.pdf