Tight money may choke construction
Washington, D.C. - "The drop in construction employment accelerated in September and will get much worse unless credit markets reopen," Ken Simonson, Chief Economist for The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), said Oct. 3 following a Bureau of Labor Statistics report that showed construction lost 35,000 jobs in September. "State governments from California to Maine have been shut out of the bond market, while developers have had bank credit windows slammed shut on their fingers as they reached for their loans.

"All types of construction shed workers in September, following an uptick in nonresidential hiring in August," Simonson noted. "Another ominous sign is that architectural and engineering services employment - a harbinger of demand for future construction - rose until recently but stalled this summer and fell in September."

Simonson said the news is actually worse, because the government numbers only reflect payrolls as of Sept. 12, before the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac triggered the current freeze in bank lending.

"The bad news on employment comes on the heels of a report from the Census Bureau on Oct. 1 that private nonresidential construction spending fell by nearly 1 percent in both July and August," Simonson said. "State and local construction spending was up, but I fear that will change as more states each week announce budget shortfalls. Highways and schools - 60 percent of public construction spending - are in particular jeopardy, because of drops in fuel and property taxes.

"Even the private categories with the best chance of growth in 2009, such as power plants, refineries, hospitals and higher education, have slowed and risk losing access to affordable loans," Simonson concluded. "The 2009 construction employment and spending outlook will be very bleak unless credit markets revive promptly."


60 Dem seats in Senate seems unlikely
(PAI) - In August, at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting, federation President John J. Sweeney set a lofty election goal for 2008, second only to winning back the White House for workers: "60 in '08."

What he meant, is even if Democratic nominee Barack Obama won the presidency, pro-worker causes are hamstrung in Congress unless labor allies muster 60 votes in the 100-member U.S. Senate to halt Republican filibusters. The current split in the Senate is 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one dem-leaning Independent.

At that same council meeting, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, offered what now looks like a more-realistic projection. The Democrats, he said, would win "five or six" of the targeted seats, meaning they would still fall about five short of the 60 needed. Two weeks before the election, polls show it looks like McEntee might be right.

But it's been a strange election season.