Penna. Construction unemployment at 37%

The national unemployment rate for construction jobs is 21%, but in the state of Penna. it comes in at an eyeball-popping 37%. This figure is too low. 50% to 60% is a more truthful figure. Since 70% of all economic activity is consumer spending, little wonder the economy is stagnant. Consumers are not spending. The middle class is imploding. Those with decent paying jobs are not secure they won't get laid off. Those who are unemployed will remain jobless. In the present state of the job market, management is in total control. Those who are hired can expect to work longer hours for less wages and benefits, if any benefits. Wages are headed down. In a construction trade or job, expect to compete with non-American labor willing to work for peanuts. Skilled trades are performing more for the same, at best. Competition can be likened to a pack of starving hyenas fighting over a rotting carcass. The demand for skilled labor is a trickle. And all of this is because the greed of the sub-prime mortgage lenders caused The Great Recession, The Financial Meltdown, and the rest of it. Forget about seeing another new-home construction boom in this lifetime. Sad but true, the independent tradesman is staring at extinction.

New home sales up

The Commerce Dept. reported new home sales rose 2.4% in July, but sales in June fell to the lowest point since Sept. 1991. Tighter lending could stall any housing recovery. The sub-prime mortgage fiasco continues to affect lenders and mortgage holders, as the huge losses by the lenders are yet to play out. They simply can not and will not approve high risk loans anymore. That disqualifies many potential home buyers. Most experts agree the credit crunch will not ease, and with it the upswing in new home building, until 2010. Defaults on mortgages continue at a high rate, and foreclosures increase. Many of the new home sales in July were homes deeply discounted by builders simply to get warm paying bodies in many units that have sat completed and unsold.

New Homes Still Weak

New home construction continues to be at lowest level since early 80s.Existing home renovations are at low levels,as the recession causes middle class homeowners into a wait and see attitude.Contractors are undercutting each other to get work.Price sells the job,so the average customer is presently in the drivers seat as many,if not most,contractors are in the squeeze of trying to retain skilled workers in the face of slow times.There is such a slowdown in construction that highly experienced tradesmen are leaving the industry in large numbers.There is a downward pressure on wages as there are more tradesmen than work.Management will seek any and all avenues to cut costs,including materials,benefits,and especially labor costs.As always,ready to leap into the labor vacuum are the low and medium skilled workers who always run after the dangled plum.

2008 worst construction year since '80s

With 2008 sixty percent over,it already ranks as the slowest construction year since the early 80s,with new home construction at a trickle.The mortgage crisis continues,even with interest rates at historic lows.New home buyers are faced with tighter qualifying rules set by lenders,while many first time buyers are in fear of layoffs and stagnant wages.The building trades are feeling the constricted construction severely,as layoffs are a constant black cloud.Many skilled tradesmen are faced with the fact that healthy construction levels will not come back until 2010.

Laid off and bills to pay

Opportunities on the internet offer an income until the construction slump eases.Starting a website is one way.Search for work at home and see the hundreds of sites.

Housing pinch getting worse

Builders now have 40% buyer cancellation rates and billions of dollars in writedowns on undeveloped land.Manufacturers are passing to builders high cost spikes on insulation,roof shingles,carpet,and especially driveway asphalt.All deliveries to developments are adding surcharges for diesel fuel that is $5 a gallon or more.More industry analysts now say this housing slump will not end until 2010.Tradesmen are faced with a dry well as far as new home construction.Skilled trades will see many builders with whom years of solid relationships were enjoyed out of business by 2010.Serious thought has to be given to other careers,at least until this severe construction downturn goes upward.