While the economy may be showing signs of awakening from its slumber, no one set the alarm to wake up the construction market. According to the Associated General Contractors (AGC), Washington, D.C., the market lost 21,000 additional jobs in September and almost hit a 14-year low for the month. AGC said construction unemployment tumbled to 17.2 percent and that weak demand for commercial facilities and infrastructure projects is responsible for most of the job losses.
Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, said, “It has taken less than four years to erase a decade’s worth of job gains as the industry suffers from declining private, state and local construction demand. No other sector of the economy has suffered as much for as long as construction.”
The electrical contracting industry is feeling this pain, too. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and estimates now being developed for EW’s 2011 Market Planning Guide to be published next month, there were at least 70,000 fewer electricians employed nationally in August than in May, 2008. These job losses translate into real dollars lost for electrical distributors, according to Electrical Wholesaling data. Each electrician a company employs accounts for an estimated $44,418 in potential electrical sales. That means in just over two years the electrical wholesaling industry has lost more than $3 billion in electrical sales to its single largest customer group — electrical contractors. Electrical Wholesaling estimates that electrical contractors account for approximately 36 percent of total industry sales.
— Jim Lucy