The Collapse of Construction Employment
Here’s a great chart from the BLS showing the collapse of construction employment from May 2006-10. No surprise the largest declines are in the four housing bubble states — Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and California. Stunning employment in this sector is down 40-55 percent and one reason why the traditional monetary transmission mechanism is broken — lower rates sparks construction spending and thus hiring of construction workers.
The latest employment figures showed further job losses in construction. That was not a good sign. It is a failure of QE to even maintain activity in construction.