Valley sees rise in construction jobs
Oct 4, 2012, 5:25 PM | Updated: 5:26 pm
There’s a glimmer of hope for the Valley’s construction industry.
The Phoenix area has lost 94,000 construction jobs since 2006, but there has been some good news this year.
“The Phoenix-metro area added 6,300 construction jobs in the last year,” said Brian Turmail of the Associated General Contractors of America. “That means the Phoenix area added more construction jobs in the last year than every other metro area in the country, except for Houston and Los Angeles.”
Turmail said a new Intel plant being built in the East Valley and increases in new home construction contributed to the bump.
According to Turmail, young people interested a career in construction have demographics on their side.
“Over 40 percent of the U.S. construction workforce are baby boomers, and they’re going to retire over the next five to six years,” he said. “In Arizona, it’s more like 60 percent of the construction work force are baby boomers.”
Turmail said, in order to return to the number of construction workers the valley had in 2006, the Phoenix area would have to add over 6,000 construction jobs every year for the next ten years.
