Construction Employment in South Florida

The year of 2012 was predicted to be one of the better years in Southern Florida, especially for those working in the construction sector. It was believed that the pace for construction hiring was going to greatly increase after declining for the past six years. However, recent information about the amount of jobs made available has caused many people to feel pessimistic about the current situation in South Florida for the construction industry. In fact, it has been a little over five years since the Broward Construction Industry added a single position for those working in the industry. The information on the lack of jobs made available came from the payroll statistics for the area. Several other areas in Florida have not added a single construction position since the end of 2007, which have been several years from now.

Along with the lack of jobs being created, losses in the construction sector continued to take place. In fact, several job losses occurred in the construction sector in several areas, including Miami-Dade and Broward. Back in the summer months of 2007, there were a total of 117,000 individuals employed within the construction sector. However, the construction sector is now only currently employing around 54,000 people, which is a whole lot less than before. The information about fewer constructions jobs was made available by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Several industries in the area actually downsized, leading to thousands of job losses within the past year, since the beginning of June 2011. In fact, in the Miami-Dade area, about 43 percent of the jobs losses took place. The construction industry seemed to take on the biggest hit when it came down to jobs cuts and fewer jobs made available. Along with construction hiring, government hiring also slowed down.

One economist, Karl Kuykendall, believed before that 2012 would be a good year for the South Florida area and for the construction industry as well. He believed that this would be the year that South Florida would bounce back from everything but now says he is surprised as to how long it is taking for things to turn around in a positive way. While it is taking longer than he originally predicted, he believes 2013 will be a better year from the area and for the construction industry. Kuykendall feels that it will not take too much longer, expecting a few losses to take place before things officially begin to get better. Things are going to take time but Kuykendall remains optimistic about South Florida’s construction industry.