Construction News Tracker Video: November US Job Growth Greatest Since 1999

The US labor market added 321,000 jobs in November - the most over a one-year period since 1999 - with 20,000 new jobs in the construction industry; plus more industry news on the December 11, 2014 edition of Construction News Tracker

Unemployment picture brightens...

Some construction project areas improve...

And a look at Cat's Guinness record sandcastle project...

That and more on Construction News Tracker brought to you by Caterpillar and produced by ForConstructionPros.com.

The U.S. labor market continues its march of improvment with 321,000 jobs added in November, the most over a one year period since 1999. The unemployment rate is now at 5.8 percent. Twenty-thousand of the new jobs were in construction. However, the flipside of this statistic shows a 36-year low of labor force participation at 62.8 percent, or 92 million people without jobs.

The third quarter of 2014 has seen the hotel construction field post double digit increases of 25 percent. Overall, the construction pipeline hit a five year high of 3,516 projects containing a whopping 443,936 rooms.

The U.S. cities with the most projects are New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Miami. And the top franchises companies are building are Marriott, Hilton and IHG. In fact, 55 percent of developers have selected abranding franchise from the beginning.

Trying to tell us something we already know, the U.S. Commerce Department reports government construction spending rose a meager three-tenths of a percent in the past year - far off the pace set before the 2009 recession. Public safety projects, such as jails, let the numbers, but the magic bullet spending on streets, highways and schools continues at 20 percent below the amount spent in 2007.

Government Construction Spending on the Rise

What do you get when you put Caterpillar's top demonstration operators together with talented sand sculpters on the beach in Rio De Janiero with nearly 1,000 cubic yards of sand? Better believe it's a Guiness World Record sand castle.

Surveyors measured the tower's world record height of 41 feet and 3 11/16 inches. Public notaries certified that the tower was made up entirely of quarry sand - 49 loads of it - and water. Check out Caterpillar's videos celebrating the record project showing how it was done right here at ForConstructionPros.com.

Neither cold nor snow nor other conditions keep construction workers from the Interstate Highway 90 Bridge taking shape over the Mississippi River. Despite wind chills into the single digits, workers are wiring together thousands of strands of rebar for the concrete piers that will hold up the two roadbeds. Ames Construction manager Ben Lovin says every single piece has had somebody's hand on it, though not the 170 concrete mixer loads delivered. The $187.5 million project ties Minnesota and Wisconsin together. With completed 16 piers cast it's scheduled to be finished in 2016.

Only a few days remain to take advantage of some nice discounts available for National Pavement Expo early reservations taht end December 12. The Nashville event will feature an expanded array of managent workshops and equipment displays during the January 28 to 31 show. We encourage you to visit the website now at nationalpavementexpo.com.

The World of Concrete show is February is also approaching. Consisting of more than 630,000 square feet of both indoor and outdoor exhibit space, 1,300 exhibitors await your hands-on examination of their products at the Las Vegas Convention Center from February 3 through the 6th. Complete information is available at the worldofconcrete.com.

Finally, when your dreams turn to dust there appears to be only one option left...vacuum.

 

 

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