Construction Coming Back to Life

On the front page of  Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle, writer Carolyn Said  heralds a rebound in San Francsico's construction job market.

The housing downturn and recession clobbered the construction industry, wiping out 2.2 million jobs nationwide and about 380,000 in California. But now, those jobs are coming back — and the Bay Area with its current building boom, is the epicenter of a recovery in solid, blue-collar employment for skilled tradespeople, as we investigate here.

Construction provided the silver lining in an otherwise grim March employment report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. 

“The solid increase in construction employment in March, which brought the average monthly gain during the first quarter to 30,000 jobs, the biggest in seven years, supports the view that the housing recovery continues to march on despite headwinds from fiscal drags,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae chief economist, in a statement. 

To read more, please go to: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/04/07/construction-jobs-bolster-economic-recovery/