Housing Economics - 04/25/2012 (Plain Text Version)

The latest data from the American Community Survey (ACS) show that 8.7 million people worked in construction in 2010. NAHB estimates show that out of this total close to 3.4 million people worked in residential construction, accounting for 2.4 percent of the US employed civilian labor force. These numbers reflect significant employment losses that took place in home building during the housing downturn. In 2005, when NAHB Economics last estimated residential construction employment by state and congressional district, the industry employed 4.8 million workers and accounted for 3.5 percent of the US employed labor force.

Despite considerable employment losses the home building industry employs a substantial number of workers in most parts of the country. This article presents new estimates of residential construction employment by state and Congressional district. Congressional district estimates are particularly useful to highlight the importance of home building to voting constituency residing in the district. The NAHB estimates show that the average congressional district has around 7,700 residents working in residential construction but that number is often significantly higher and actually exceeds 17,000 in Montana’s At-large Congressional district...Full Story