Cedar Rapids ranks 16th nationally in construction job growth

A gain of 400 construction jobs in the past year places Cedar Rapids 16th nationally in construction job growth, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The BLS released October construction employment data on Wednesday, Dec. 1, showing 7,800 construction jobs. That's a gain of 5 percent, or 400, from October 2009.

Work rebuilding from the June 2008 flood has bolstered the Cedar Rapids construction economy, including work on a new federal courthouse, a new campus for social service agencies and construction of housing to replace homes lost in the flood.

As a state, Iowa lost 300 construction jobs over last year, reducing the total number to 66,700. The Des Moines metro area lost 200 jobs, or 1 percent of its total. It was ranked 114th.

Only about one-third of the 337 metropolitan areas tracked in the data showed year-over-year improvement in construction jobs.

Federal stimulus projects, military base realignment projects and power projects have put a halt to some of the dramatic construction job losses many metro areas have experienced, according to Ken Siomonson, the chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America. He said construction job losses remain far too numerous and widespread, however.

The Chicago metro lost more 19,200 construction jobs in the past year. The 14 percent reduction was more than any other metro area. Napa, California lost a larger percentage of jobs than any other, at 37 percent (1,100 jobs).

Phoenix, Ariz., added 4,100 jobs in the past year. Although its percentage gain of 5 percent equaled that in Cedar Rapids, the total number of jobs added was higher than any other metro area.

A 400-job gain in Hanford-Corcoran, Calif., was equivalent to the number of jobs gained in Cedar Rapids, but it was higher than any other metro on a percentage basis (44 percent).