NYC construction, real estate industries see August job growth

The city’s construction industry added 1,700 jobs last month, making it one of the best-performing employment sectors for August, second only to retail, according to a new report from Eastern Consolidated. Year-to-date, 3,000 New York City construction jobs have been created, representing 2.6 percent of the industry, but construction employment is still 11.8 percent off its August 2008 peak. Meanwhile, 400 jobs were added in real estate, bringing the total for 2010 thus far to 4,100 new employees in the city’s industry, or 3.5 percent of the workforce. New York City real estate — which Eastern Consolidated considers to include brokerage firms, leasing agencies and management companies — has now all but entirely recovered the job losses incurred during the recession, with employment down just 0.3 percent off its peak. Architecture, meanwhile, continues to suffer, losing another 200 jobs last month, which brings the yearly total for the industry in New York City to 1,200. New York’s architecture industry has lost 4.8 percent of its workforce this year and 22.8 percent of its workforce since August 2008, Eastern Consolidated data shows. TRD