WASHINGTON - "Construction again led the employment report in February with a gain of 41,000 jobs, one-fifth of all private-sector jobs added during the month," said Ken Simonson, chief economist for The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Simonson was commenting on seasonally adjusted job figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). "This is just the latest in a long string of employment gains. Since February 2005, construction employment has risen 346,000, or 4.7 percent; triple the overall growth rate for non-farm payroll jobs.
"As in other recent months, employment growth was well distributed across construction industry segments and regions," Simonson observed.