November 2009

The United States saw a jump in new home construction.  November saw an increase of 8.9 percent and was steady throughout the country. New building permit numbers were also up by 6 percent. The US government will give the construction industry a total of $130 billion out of the $789 billion stimulus package out of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Benefiting from the  stimulus will be infrastructure, industrial, and institutional construction.

Not only that, last month Minnesota was one of 26 states that actually added new construction jobs. This data is compared month-to-month and Minnesota went from 93,600 employed in October  to 94,800 in November.

Ken Simonsin, The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) said in an interview that this was the first time in over a year that the majority of states have gained employment on a monthly basis and that it was too early to say the market has turned around. He also stated that the construction industry will be fueled by single-family residential architecture in the coming year, not by non-residential builds.

“I think we will see more stimulus money in 2010 turn into construction projects” and “the developer-financed or manufacturing or institutional – like universities, hospitals, public schools – those are in for another rough year.”

See, “Minnesota Gains Construction Jobs in November” & “November New-Home Construction up 8.9%“