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10 LC DBM I n f o r m a t i o n R e q u e s t # 5 1 9 Construction Job Report by Metropolitan Area – 2014 Top Tier Bottom Step Net new positions in all industries added in the U.S. in January as re - ported by the Labor Department 257 metro areas added construction jobs 43 subtracted jobs 39 reported stagnant conditions Eau Claire, Wis. (38 %) Ogden-Clearfeld, Utah (28 %) Monroe, Mich. (25 %) Pascagoula, Miss. (24 %) Steubenville-Weirton, Ohio-W.Va. (-41 %) Anniston-Oxford, Ala. (-13 %) Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, Md. (-12%) Gary, Ind. (-11 %) (Associated General Contractors of America) Multifamily housing starts in Janu- ary, an increase of 7.5% over De- cember 2014 The value of construc - tion in 2014, which was 5.6 percent above the $910.8 billion spent in 2013 Percentage of respondents to Sage Business Solutions' annual survey of the construction industry that said residential construction will be one of the top three areas of demand for work in 2015 (commercial, 59%, and health care, 27%, being the other two) Drop in construc - tion prices in January, the sixth consecutive month that they have not gone up 2 % 52 % Bright Spots In the Shadows • A 30.8% drop in single-family housing production in the Midwest, dragged January's U.S. total down 6.7%. • Researchers at Freddie Mac recently re- ported that the professions experiencing the most job growth have homeownership rates at or below the national aver- age ; inferring that the increasing employment rate may not necessarily lead to an increase in home purchases. • According to the Commerce Department, the economy expanded in the fourth quarter of 2014 at a 2.6% annual rate, which was less than the forecasted rate and almost half as well as third quarter growth . • Based on the latest fndings of the Bu- reau of Labor Statistics, construction un- employment increased 1.8% in January to 9.8% even as the industry added 39,000 jobs: an indication that potential workers who moved to other industries or just stopped looking are now returning to the construction job market. "As it stands, the pullback in (consumer) confdence, along with the early-year decline in retail sales, hints of slower consumer spending growth in the frst quarter ," Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets responding to the drop in the University of Michigan's consumer sen- timent index from 98.1 in January to 93.6 in February. 257,000 387,000 $961.4 billion Economic News