Construction jobs hit hard

Florida's construction industry lost the most jobs of any state in the nation, according to the Associated General Contractors of America's study of Labor Department data.

Florida lost 14,300 construction jobs during the year, beating out Georgia (12,700 jobs lost), Colorado (8,900), North Carolina (8,000) and Maryland (6,700) for the most losses by volume.

As a percentage of its total construction work force, however, Florida's losses were not as significant as those of Nevada, where 10.8% of all construction jobs were eliminated, according to employment data.

Florida's top rank among job losses comes despite the fact that employers actually added 4,100 new construction positions in May. Florida would have had 18,400 fewer construction jobs during the year if not for last month's hiring activity.

Ken Simonson, chief economist for the AGCA, says the most recent results hardly surprised him. “There just isn't enough demand for new construction to drive nationwide boosts in construction employment,” he says in a statement.