Construction Job Hot Spots for October 2008

Construction employment is growing in 1 out of 4 metropolitan areas.

At the State level, Texas had the most new Construction jobs by a wide margin (25,300) for the 12 months ending August 2008. Next was Louisiana (2,800), Oklahoma (1,800), Alabama (1,100) and Wyoming (1,000).

At the metropolitan level, 78 out of 312 areas added new jobs. Some areas grew even though their State showed a job loss. For example, San Francisco added 1,000 new Construction jobs as California lost 85,500.

FYI, Construction employment is sometimes combined with Natural Resources and Mining (Nat) for tracking purposes by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (our data source). However, since Construction employment is typically 10 times greater than Natural Resources and Mining, the combined category (Construction & Nat) is about 90% Construction and useful for comparisons.

Here are the metropolitan areas with the most Construction employment growth as of the latest BLS report on October 3, 2008. Some areas overlap.   

Hot Spots	Industry	New Jobs
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	Construction & Nat	8,500
Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metro	Construction & Nat	6,500
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX	Construction	6,400
New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metro	Construction & Nat	2,400
New York City, NY	Construction & Nat	2,100
New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA	Construction	2,000
Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro	Construction & Nat	2,000
San Antonio, TX	Construction	1,900
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC	Construction & Nat	1,900
Austin-Round Rock, TX	Construction & Nat	1,700
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA	Construction & Nat	1,600
Oklahoma City, OK	Construction	1,600
Pittsburgh, PA	Construction	1,100
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metro	Construction	1,000
Grand Junction, CO	Construction & Nat	1,000
Tulsa, OK	Construction	900
Corpus Christi, TX	Construction & Nat	800
Honolulu, HI	Construction & Nat	700
Longview, TX	Construction & Nat	700
Odessa, TX	Construction & Nat	700
Gary, IN Metro	Construction	600
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA	Construction & Nat	600
Putnam-Rockland-Westchester, NY	Construction & Nat	600
Mobile, AL	Construction & Nat	600
El Paso, TX	Construction & Nat	600
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA	Construction & Nat	600
Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX	Construction & Nat	600
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA	Construction	500
Midland, TX	Construction & Nat	500

The metro areas that grew between 100 and 400 new Construction jobs include include:

• Greeley, CO
• Pascagoula, MS
• Lafayette, LA
• College Station-Bryan, TX
• Birmingham-Hoover, AL
• Philadelphia City, PA
• Huntsville, AL
• Laredo, TX
• Wilmington, NC
• Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA
• York-Hanover, PA
• Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR
• Nassau-Suffolk, NY Metro
• Kansas City, MO
• Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC
• Raleigh-Cary, NC
• Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN
• Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
• McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
• Dothan, AL Grand Forks, ND-MN
• Abilene, TX
• Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX
• Lubbock, TX
• Tyler, TX
• Waco, TX
• Oshkosh-Neenah, WI
• Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
• Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT
• New Haven, CT
• Lancaster, PA
• Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA
• Amarillo, TX
• Baton Rouge, LA
• Lake Charles, LA
• Springfield, MO
• Syracuse, NY
• Decatur, AL
• Jackson, TN
• Johnson City, TN
• Texarkana, TX-Texarkana, AR
• Lafayette, IN
• Cedar Rapids, IA
• Lincoln, NE
• Bismarck, ND
• Canton-Massillon, OH
• Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA
• Rapid City, SD
• Wichita Falls, TX

The take-away: Every industry is growing somewhere, and every location has growing industries. You might need to switch industries or relocate to get your best job-finding odds. Then again, you might be just fine were your are now. JobBait's free Executive Job Market Report will get you started.

Comments

[debbie]

Interesting market intelligence.