A recent report released by the Associated General Contractors of America reveals that Denver leads the way among metropolitan areas when it comes to construction jobs added over the past year, the Denver Post reports.
According to the report, Denver added 6,300 new construction jobs between February 2011 and February 2012, ranking it the best among the 337 metropolitan areas tracked by analysts. Denver notably beat areas with much larger populations, such as Los Angeles. Although the city was not the top area from a percentage standpoint, the new jobs resulted in a 10 percent overall increase.
"It's definitely looking more favorable than it has been," Greg Schmidt, president of Saunders Construction in Centennial, CO, told the news source. "It's really refreshing to see the market stabilize and start to pick up."
Construction industries in states across the country have taken a big hit since the economic downturn, and one only needs to look at Colorado's construction job numbers to see that effect. The industry dropped to 104,000 jobs in the middle of 2011, a sharp decline from the nearly 170,000 jobs available in 2006.
Fortunately, several high-profile new projects in the Denver area have buoyed job prospects for contractors over the past year. Major construction projects include the new South Terminal at Denver International Airport, development on the RTD rail system, St. Joseph's Hospital, a new building for the Colorado Supreme Court and an expansion at the University of Colorado Hospital.
The new projects are causing contractors to expand the number of available positions. The Denver office of Mortenson Construction told the news source it has already hired 16 new supervisors, with plans to hire 15 more and an additional 50 craft-labor workers.
Contractors that have major projects on the horizon will still need to keep costs down. The online auction site IronPlanet offers a wide array of used construction equipment, often at a more affordable price than buying new.
