NYC construction jobs down 22 percent off peak: report

There were just 106,500 New York City construction jobs in January, marking the industry’s worst performance in nearly five years and a 22 percent decline off the August 2008 peak of 136,900 jobs, according to an employment report released today by the New York Building Congress. While it’s not unusual for the winter months to be slow, this year’s numbers represent a 12 percent dip from January 2009, when there were 121,300 city construction jobs, and a 16 percent decline from January 2008, when there were 127,500. Average earnings for the city’s construction workers dropped to $63,300 during 2009, down from $68,800 in 2008, which the Building Congress attributed partly to declines in overtime pay. The report accounts for contractors, skilled laborers and others directly involved in physical construction and does not include government-employed construction workers, architects or engineers. TRD