Greater Hartford’s shrinking construction workforce reached a worrisome milestone over the last year, a new report found.
The region’s construction industry lost 1,600 jobs between Sept. 2018 and Sept. 2019, down 8 percent from a year ago, according to a new report by the Associated General Contractors of America.
That ranks the Hartford area fourth among metro areas with the largest percentage decrease in jobs over that period, the Virginia-based industry trade group said.
The report comes weeks after Connecticut labor officials reported that the state’s construction and mining industry lost 400 jobs (down 0.7 percent) in September for total employment of 57,400 workers.
Construction employment declined in Connecticut during the last year as the workforce grew nationally. In fact, the industry added jobs in 68 percent of metro areas (244 of 358) in the last year. Only 61 metros reported jobs declines.
Greater Hartford construction job losses were only outpaced by Longview, Texas (a decrease of 11 percent), Fairbanks, Alaska (9 percent) and the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Miss., region, respectively.
The Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas, area added the most construction jobs during the last year with 15,000 new jobs. Trailing were Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. (12,400 jobs, 10 percent) and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif. (10,700 jobs, 7 percent).
In Connecticut, the construction industry faces an aging workforce and tight labor markets. That’s why some big contracting firms, smaller subcontractors and their suppliers are looking to diversify and hire more women in the male-dominated industry.
Meantime, a growing number of construction firms are experimenting with wearable technology and the internet of things to enhance their workplace safety efforts.
Of the 4,674 private-sector workers who died on the job in 2017, one in five were in construction, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration statistics.
