While the overall U.S. national unemployment rate has fallen to 8.6%, there appears to be little gain in the area for the construction industry. Building and construction workers continue to face an unemployment rate exceeding 13%, indicating that the slow recovery of the industry has a long way to go.
While new construction projects are placed in limbo and renovations are the order of the day, the construction industry is poised for an uncomfortable ride on the road to economic recovery in the U.S.
Mark H. Ayers, President of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, delivered the following statement on the release of the November 2011 jobs report by the U.S. Department of Labor:
“The fact that our nation's overall unemployment rate has dropped to 8.6% is, indeed, cause for optimism. However, there are no celebrations being planned throughout the U.S. construction industry today. And that's because today's report also indicates that the 13.1% national unemployment rate for construction workers is relatively unchanged from the month of October. This should serve as a stern wake-up call for our nation's elected leaders to put partisan differences aside and work towards crafting innovative investment solutions to the current state of our nation's infrastructure - solutions that would, once again, acknowledge the critically pivotal role that infrastructure and the construction industry play in the health of the U.S. economy. The time to act is now!”
5 Legal Factors in Green Construction
