It's impossible to draw long-term conclusions about trends affecting construction workers in the Gulf region, who are rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina hit the area just three months ago.

Early on after the hurricane, the experience of Knight Enterprises detailed nearby is one piece of the puzzle, but there are others. Representatives of both the local Associated General Contractors and the Associated Builders and Contractors maintain that having - or not having - prevailing wage rules in the region hasn't mattered much.

"The issue of prevailing wages under Davis-Bacon really did not mean much because the market was driving wage rates," said Derrell Cohoon, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, to the Construction Labor Report. A spokeswoman for the ABC said workers' wages have doubled, with general laborers earning $20 per hour plus benefits.

The Engineering News Record reported on the disconnect between the prevailing wage required by the law - and the higher amounts that are actually being paid to workers. Louisiana Plumbers Local 60 Business Manager Lance Albin said prevailing wage will be even more important down the road. "We were worried about (the suspension of prevailing wage)," he said. "The real work has not started."