Despite 663,000 Job Cuts, More Than $21 Billion in Capital and Maintenance Projects Were Scheduled to Begin Construction in March

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Job losses continued to mount in March in the United States. The national unemployment rate rose to 8.5% while nearly 663,000 jobs were lost during the month. However, despite the heavy job losses, more than $21 billion in capital and maintenance projects were scheduled to begin construction during the month, indicating that thousands of new construction jobs were being created.

Click on the image at right to see a breakdown of projects that were scheduled to begin construction in March.

Six states stood out during the month, with projected spending totaling more than $21 billion. Virginia, Washington, Tennessee and Texas all had construction-start totals that passed $2 billion, while Louisiana and Florida each topped $1.5 billion. The remaining top-spending states in March -- California, New York, Utah and Oklahoma -- began construction on projects totaling between $600 million and $800 million.

Some regions of the country stood out, as well. Spending is obviously alive and well in the South as both the Southeast and Southwest regions managed to put forth more than $4 billion in capital and maintenance construction starts. The West Coast and Mid-Atlantic regions were not far behind with more than $3 billion in spending each during the month while the Rocky Mountains was the sole region to be in the $2 billion range.

Some of the key projects that began construction last month include a $2 billion grassroot polysilicon manufacturing plant in Tennessee, a $1.9 billion light rail transit expansion in Washington, a $900 million Phase II vinyls complex expansion in Louisiana, an $800 million unit addition in Florida, and a $375 million natural-gas-liquids processing train addition in Wyoming.

The jobs numbers posted for the month were not encouraging for the country. The job losses have continued to climb rapidly with more than 5 million jobs being lost since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, and more than 3 million jobs disappearing in the last five months.

Manufacturing and construction employment continued their declines, as well. In March, manufacturing lost an additional 161,000 jobs while the construction sector dropped another 126,000. The fabricated metal products, machinery and transportation equipment sectors continue to face major job losses month after month. On the construction side, specialty trade contractors saw 83,000 jobs disappear while building constructors took a 33,000 jobs hit.

However, despite the continued decline in overall jobs, spending appears to be moving along at a stately pace. With the level of capital and maintenance projects that began construction in March, it is hard to believe that the job losses will continue at the level they have been for much longer. With companies investing tens of billions of dollars in project activity each month in the U.S., April is already scheduled to have $16.6 billion in project starts, and May is hovering around $17.7 billion, more jobs should be created than lost in the near future. Hopefully, by this summer, we will see unemployment begin to steady and then decline, especially if companies continue to spend at these levels.

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