10 Things to Know About Contractors & Builders

• Some 991,000 total housing starts are forecast for 2014. That’s up 6.6 percent from 930,000 units last year. – National Association of Home Builders
• Single-family housing production is expected to rise 26 percent in 2015 to 802,000 units, and reach 1.1 million units in 2016. – National Association of Home Builders
• Construction employers added 16,000 jobs in September, and the sector’s unemployment rate fell to 7 percent, the lowest rate for September in years. Construction employment totaled 6,079,000 in September, the highest total since May 2009, with a 12-month gain of 230,000 jobs or 3.9 percent. – The Associated General Contractors of America
• Construction employment expanded in 236 metro areas, declined in 53 and was stagnant in 50 between September 2013 and September 2014. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, added the largest number of construction jobs in the past year (13,500 jobs), followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif. (10,100 jobs), Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas (9,900 jobs) and Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Ill. (9,100 jobs). – Federal employment data, The Associated General Contractors of America
• When One World Trade Center in New York opened in November it officially became the tallest building in the U.S. at 1,776 feet. The tallest building in the world is Burj Khalifa in United Arab Emirates at 2,723 feet. Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower, expected to be completed in 2019, will become the tallest at 3,281 feet. – Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
• Permits for privately-owned housing units in September hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,018,000, a 1.5 percent increase from the revised August rate and 2.5 percent above the September 2013 rate. – U.S. Census Bureau
• As of September there were an estimated 3.78 million people employed in the specialty contractor industry. – Bureau of Labor Statistics
• The average hourly wage for all employees working in the building construction sector in the U.S. was $27.91 as of August. That’s down slightly over the past few months, but it has risen steadily from 2006 when the average was $23.59. – Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Out of 3,929 worker fatalities in calendar year 2013 in the private industry 796 (20.3 percent) were in construction. – U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Safety & Health Administration
• Texas (15 percent), Florida (9 percent) and California (8 percent) were the top three states for housing permits issued in 2013. – U.S. Census Bureau