Michigan, once again, leads the nation in total unemployment (15.2 percent) according to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers released July 17. (No state since West Virginia in 1984 had topped 15 percent unemployment).

That bad news also extends into the construction industry. Many Michigan building trades unions that have been experiencing 50 percent unemployment for the last several months now have plenty of company in the misery index, with nearly every state shedding construction jobs – some at alarmingly high rates.

The BLS provided numbers that are a snapshot of state-by-state unemployment for when the nation’s economy was relatively stable (June 2008) to June 2009, when the economy has been anything but steady. Michigan shed 28,200 construction jobs from June 2008 to June 2009 (an 18.4 percent reduction), but six states did as badly or worse during that time: Arizona (25.5 percent reduction in construction jobs); Nevada (22.6 percent); Connecticut (21.7 percent); Tennessee (19.8 percent), and Utah (18.4 percent).

Only in North Dakota (5 percent rise) and Louisiana (4 percent) did construction employment increase from June 2008 to June 2009.

“The Recovery Act will start mitigating job losses in all states for the rest of the year and into 2010,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. “But the worsening state and local fiscal picture, along with continued sluggishness in the private sector, means that nonresidential construction work will keep shrinking.”

He added: “Single-family homebuilders appear finally to have touched bottom and should begin hiring on net. However, the multi-family market remains moribund, with weak demand, excessive supply in many states and no credit availability.”

Simonson urged Congress to act quickly on transferring money into the federal Highway Trust Fund to avert interruption of payments to highway contractors that would force more layoffs. He also called for prompt enactment of pending authorization bills for highways and transit, aviation and water projects, along with passage of appropriations bills that include federal construction.

“All of these bills will deliver both short- and long-term benefits to the American public, while providing desperately needed jobs for construction workers in every state,” he added.