Construction employment in Connecticut has been on the decline this past year, according to the Arlington, Va.-based Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA).
Connecticut ranked 44th in the country in August with a loss of 1,600 construction jobs, compared with the same month a year earlier, the association said Tuesday. The state ranked 50th in the country when August numbers were compared with July figures, with a drop of 1,600 employees in that time frame.
All told, construction employment rose in 36 states year over year, but between July and August, only 24 states added jobs as firms struggled to find workers, the AGCA reported.
The statistics and rankings are based on an analysis of U.S. Labor Department data.
“The construction market has cooled off in recent months but continues to outperform the overall economy in most states, with solid year-over-year job gains,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the association. “Despite some slowing in public construction, apartments and manufacturing projects, contractors in many states say they would be hiring more employees if they could find enough qualified workers.”
California added the most construction jobs (29,300 jobs, 4 percent) between August 2015 and August 2016.
States that shed more jobs than Connecticut include Alabama, which lost 3,500 workers; and Kansas, which lost 4,700 workers.
Association officials said that even as demand for certain types of construction projects, especially public-sector projects, was slowing, firms in many parts of the country remain more worried about the lack of available workers than the lack of available work.
They urged U.S. Senators to act on a House-passed measure that would boost funding for, and make reforms to, career and technical school programs to encourage and prepare more students to pursue high-paying careers in construction.
