CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY OVERVIEW AND FACTS

VALUE OF CONSTRUCTION Construction put in place during June 2002 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $820.8 billion according to the U.S. Commerce Department's Census Bureau. In constant (1996) dollars, the June annual rate was $671.5 billion.

VALUE OF CONSTRUCTION (CONT.) Spending on new residential housing units was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $293.5 billion in June. Nonresidential building construction was at a rate of $165.4 billion. In June, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction put in place was $197.5 billion Construction produced 3.8% of the U.S. gross domestic product, the total market value of goods and services produced by labor and property in the United States according to Census of Construction Industries (CCI) report in 1997.

NATURE OF INDUSTRY Houses, apartments, factories, offices, schools, roads, and bridges are some of the products of the construction industry. This industry’s activities include work on new structures as well as additions, alterations, and repairs to existing ones. Construction Industry is Division C of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system and is divided into three major segments: –General building contractors (SIC 15) –Heavy construction contractors (SIC 16) –Special trade contractors (SIC 17)

NATURE OF INDUSTRY (CONT.) Construction usually is done or coordinated by general contractors. They take full responsibility for the complete job, except for specified portions of the work that may be omitted from the general contract. Although general contractors may work with their own crews, they often subcontract most of the work to heavy construction or special trade contractors. Special trade contractors usually do the work of only one trade, e.g. painting, carpentry, or electrical work. Special trade contractors have no responsibility for the structure as a whole. They obtain orders for their work from general contractors, architects, or property owners.

EMPLOYMENT Construction, with 6.7 million wage and salary and 1.6 million self-employed and unpaid family non-government jobs in 2000, was one of the Nation’s largest industries. Although the construction industry ranks third of the 9 industry divisions in number of establishments covered by unemployment insurance, covered employment in the industry is ranked second from the bottom. Construction accounted for 10.1 percent of establishments and 5.2 percent of employment in 2000.

EMPLOYMENT (CONT.) Employment data for based on an establishment survey show annual average employment in construction industry reaching a cyclical trough of about 4.5 million in 1992 before increasing 48.8 % to 6.7 million in From its cyclical trough in 1991, in contrast, employment in the economy as a whole has grown 22.1 %. Over the same period, the unemployment rate in the construction industry rose to 16.8 % in 1992 and fell to 6.4 % in 2000, before increasing to 7.3 % in The overall unemployment rate in 2001 was 4.8 %.

EARNINGS The average hourly earnings of workers in construction were $18.34 in 2001, compared to an average of $14.32 for all workers.

OUTLOOK Employment projections for the construction industry in 2010 indicate that employment in the industry will grow at a rate of 1.2 %, somewhat more slowly than the 1.4 percent rate for the economy as a whole. The number of wage and salary jobs in the construction industry is expected to grow about 12 % through the year 2010, compared with 15 % projected for all industries combined.

BUSINESS FAILURE RATES The Dun & Bradstreet data show that construction businesses fail at a higher rate than do all businesses. Since 1988, general contractors and operative builders (SIC 15), on average, have been failing at higher rates than have the other two construction sectors (SIC 16 & 17). And, overall, older businesses were a larger proportion of construction failures in 1996 than they were a decade earlier.

Business failure rates, construction and all industries

WORK-RELATED INJURY FACTS There were 1,154 fatal occupational injuries in construction in In 2000, the latest year for which there are data, there were 503,500 nonfatal injuries and illnesses in construction. Incidence rates for nonfatal injuries and illnesses were 8.3 per 100 full-time equivalent workers in construction and 6.1 per 100 full-time equivalent workers in all private industry in 2000.

SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS Construction workers as a group are slightly younger than workers in other industries. The average age for the construction industry is 36.9 years, the third-lowest for the 12 industries (1996). Female construction workers are a small but growing percentage of the construction workforce. About 813,000 women were employed in construction in 1996, accounting for 10% of total construction employment. More than 80% of the women are managerial or administrative-support staff women than is non-union pay.

HIGHLIGHTS OF MICHIGAN STATISTICS IN 1992 Number of Construction Establishments - 20,446 Total construction workers employment - $141,595 Total payroll, construction workers - $3.5 billion Value of Construction Work Done - $16.4 billion

INTERNET SOURCES U.S. Census Bureau – Construction Statistics Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)