Chicago Construction Jobs Decline

Posted on March 12, 2009

While nearly every industry in the Chicago area saw an over-the-year job decrease during January, the ax fell hardest on Chicago construction jobs.

The Chicago-Naperville-Joliet area’s unemployment rate came in at 8.2 percent during January, up from 6.9 percent during December 2008. The area had a total non-farm employment of 3,697,200 workers during January, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 3,810,400 workers during December and a 2.8 percent decrease from last year.

Chicago’s construction industry only employed 137,000 workers during January, down from 153,400 workers during December and a 10 percent decrease from last year. The area’s construction industry has seen an over-the-year decline every month for the last six months: by 5.3 percent during August, by 6.3 percent during September, by 7.4 percent during October, by 9 percent during November, by 10.2 percent during December and by 10 percent during January.

Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in Chicago jobs during January include:

The only industries that saw an over-the-year jobs gain during January were education and health services by, which increased by 2.5 percent to 521,500 workers, and government, which increased by .2 percent to 471,900 workers.