Jun 5 2008 9:02AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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The Wall Street Journal has an article today that looks at the impact of the construction downturn on unemployment amongst Hispanics, based on a report (39-page PDF) issued yesterday by the Pew Research Center.

Not surprisingly, they have been hardest hit by the downturn. According to government numbers, Hispanics represent 26 percent of the construction workforce, and the real numbers are probably much higher due to illegals that are paid under the table. 

This is also probably a big reason why the unemployment numbers in residential construction don't appear as bad as they should logically be. With housing starts half of what they were two years ago, residential construction employment is officially down less than 15 percent.

Antother factor? Based on my conversations with many remodelers, there's probably a lot of people that are taking too long to pull the trigger on job cuts. It's not something most people enjoy doing and a lot of people I've talked to are finally making those decisions now that they admit they should have made a year ago. Also, there are people working fewer hours. The government numbers are just measuring if people are working -- not if it's 50 hours a week or 20, so that's a part of it, too. But the reality is off-the-book employees (not just immigrants, either) are probably the biggest reason for the seeming lack of job loss.