May 11,2012

Construction employment for 2012 is on the upswing compared to 2011 but its a long road back to get to the peak of the summer of 2007,their are some hot spots but their are more cold spots,ironically Nevada is the coldest,with Arizona right behind it.The housing bubble that burst in 2008 has hurt some areas of the country more than others,Florida,Arizona and Nevada were the worst Home prices are up inmany spots , according to the National Association of Realtors the median price of a single family home rose in 74 of the largest 146 markets,the biggest problems facing AZ,NV and FL is their are more homes that are being foreclosed on every month and they tend to bring the prices down in the surrounding areas. Foreclosures are expected to go up following the 25 billion settlement between the mortgage brokers and the federal and state officials.

Heavy equipment distributor UNTR a subsidiary of the Astra Group said that last year it sold more than 9500 Komatsu heavy duty tractors,that was the best year they have had since 2007.In 2007 they sold a little more than 10,500.

Caterpillar has reported that the first quarter of 2012 their sales were up a surprising 23 %,that is in addition to an increase of more than 29% increase in sales outside of North America.

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May 10,2012

Construction employment dipped by 5,000 jobs in April,2012 that was the first decline in the last seven months,ADP news bureau reported that we are still 16 percent below our all time high that peaked in the summer of 2008.These figures are based on the construction projects that are located in the largest 337 metropolitan areas,in April 2012 155 of those areas saw an increase in construction employment ,48 of them remained constant and 134 saw a decrease.The two areas that saw the largest increase were Denver and Aurura CO those two cities added 5,600 jobs in the last twelve months,the two cities that saw the largest decrease were Montgomery and Huntsville Alabama,and cnsidering what happened last year with the tornados that hard to understand why, they were down 18%and 19% respectively. The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Detroit is ranked 94 on the list with a modest .1% increase in the last 12 months.

Bakersfield CA added 3,900 heavy equipment jobs over the last 12 months,that is a 30%increase over the same period of time one year ago,that seems like a large increase but they still have a long way to go to get back to the level they were at in 2008.The Milwaukee Journal is reporting that Caterpillar has been trying and trying to increase their market share in China without a lot of success so they are now planning on opening their own assembly plants over there,either build them from the ground up or acquire them through a purchase,the heavy equipment training is not taken as serious over there than it is here,one reason is the lack of heavy equipment schools,the short cut is on the job training but the one draw back to that is it is time consuming and you,re not always sure the person doing the training is well qualified.

NextLots on-line auction for heavy equipment set a record ,$4,500,000

April 2012

Construction employment went down in April 2012 by one tenth of one percentage point,after four months of modest gains that was to be expected.Since the first of the year construction employment is up 5.8 percent as reported by the Detroit Free Press, the the largest gain in the first four months since the first quarter of 2005. Out of the 337 largest metropolitan areas construction employment was up in 148 of them, it stayed even in 44 of them and decreased in the rest of them. The two hot spots remain the same Bismarck,ND and Longview,TX.

A private research group known as The Conference Board has come out and said that the consumer confidence index went from 61.5 to 70.8 percent.Their senior strategist said that after the first quarter of 2011 everyone was saying that we were heading into a double dip recession and that unemployment could go to 10 percent, well as we now know that didn"t happen.The DOW , S and P 500 and NASDAQ have all gone up at least 15 percent over the last year. Unemployment peaked at 8.5 percent and has edged down four out of the last five months.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics construction employment is higher than at any time during 2009,2010 or 2011 but it still has a long way to go to get back to where it was at the peak in the first and second quarter of 2008.

The five largest equipment manucacturers saw their sales go up by four percentage points compared to the first four months of 2011,the used equipment prices have gone up by at least 10 points over last years prices,with the price of fuel leveling off maybe this years construction season will be a huge improvement over last years.

March01,2012

A private research group known as the Conference Board said that the consumer confidence went from 61.5 percent in January 2012 to 70.8 percent in February 2012. Their senior technical strategist stated thatin the last quarter of 2011 everyone was saying that a double dip recession was right around the corner.The DOW crossed the 13,000 mark.

Tuesday February 28,the DOW was still 1,160 points below its all time high,but 60 days after hitting its all time high the biggest recession in the last 50 years started.The S and P 500 closed at its highest since June 2008,Nasdaq is higher than its been since December 2000, and all the other major indexes are all higher than they have been for three years.

The unemployment rate went down in January,that makes five months in a row and that hasn’t happened since 1994.243,000 jobs were added in January 2012.According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics construction employment showed its highest level since August 2006,considering that a lot of construction is done by owner operators this is good news.The Bureau of Labor Statistics gets its information from payroll reporting records.Last year construction employment increased in 148 out of 337 of the largest metropolitan areas.

February 2012

According to industry insiders the construction employment payroll increased by 2 percent in 2011.The manufacturing industry shed 5,800,000 jobs between 1999 and 2009,recently that trend is starting to reverse itself.January 2012 saw an increase in manufacturing jobs by 50,000.After hiring only 237,000 in all of 2011 ,50,000 in one month is a big upswing.

The heavy equipment school in Atlanta,GA has been designated as a "yellow Ribbon" institution of higher learning for the second straight year,that designation allows them to participate in aid programs that other schools can,t without that designation. North Dakota is still in a hiring mode,if anyone is interested in looking for work up there,look at these web sites,www.ndoiljobs.com or www.rigzone.com
these web sites update their E jobs board on a daily basis ,the www.rigzone.com web site has heavy equipment ,CDL,and crane jobs posted for all different parts of the world. If you are going to fill out the information page be specific as to where you are willing to work.when you get to the job classification put in "trades".You can scroll down and look at the different jobs they have posted.

Heavy Equipment

Washington D.C. Good news,good news,bad news, good news,two steps forward one step backwards.Their are signs that the economy is improving,and their are signs that we are still stuck in neutral.January 2012 unemployment figures went down for the third straight month.8.8 percent down to 8.5 percent even though that doesn,t seem like a lot each tenth of a percentage point represents 245,000 people. Their are some economists that feel that the reason for the decline is the "chronic" unemployed have quit filing their claims,but that argument can be made whenever it suits them.

Florida,The Ritchie Brothers are having a huge heavy equipment auction between February 13 and February 18 , if the prices of the construction equipment on the east coast is the same as the west coast ,the sellers will be happy.Their was two auctions on the west coast in Dec.2011 and Jan.2012 and in each one of them 75 percent of the heavy equipment sold for more than the asking price.

Oregon, The Interstate 5 corridor repair project that was authorized during the last year of George Bush,s administration is finishing the first phase , which was the all of the bridges from Mexico to Canada,the second phase is all of the on and off ramps and overpasses.This phase was supposed to begin in August of 2011 ,but considering the amount and complexity of the first phase, being 10 months behind schedule is not uncommon.

North Dakota, This is still the lowest unemployment in the country,the oil fields are still short handed. They are in dire need of pipe fitters,welders,heavy equipment operators,CDL drivers,engineers,and assorted others.If you are interested in working in North Dakota look at the web site www.ndoiljobs.com this web site will direct you whatever you,re interested in.

Construction News

Economic Activity Advances in Thirty States in September
11/18/11 – The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia regional economic activity indexes advanced in 30 states in September from August. On a three-month moving average basis, 33 states showed improvement. Thirteen states declined in September, with the only notable concentration being in the South Atlantic division where activity for five of the eight states declined (Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia). Also included in this division is Maryland whose index was unchanged from August. This was the only division posting a decline, falling 0.9%. The West North Central division had the greatest monthly advance among the nine divisions with a 3.5% increase at an annual rate and was one of only two divisions (along with the West South Central) in which no state posted a decline in activity (South Dakota was flat).

British Army engineers give Afghan soldiers heavy equipment training

British Army engineers give Afghan soldiers heavy equipment training.

Crane Operator Dies in Rollover

Bury, Great Britain: A crane operator was killed today after his eight axle mobile crane ran away on a steep incline at the Scout Moor wind farm.

Texas Job Boom? Maybe!

CNN Money ran an article on the jobs in Texas, here are some exceprts:

• Texas has created a lot of jobs over the 10 years that Rick Perry’s been governor — there’s no doubt about it.
• Perry, who is formally launching his presidential candidacy on Saturday, is making his state’s economic prowess a centerpiece of his campaign. Already he’s been bragging about his state being the "epicenter of job growth."
• Texas has gained more than 1 million net new jobs in the decade Perry has led the state. And it’s been going strong since the recession ended.
• "We are home to fewer than one in 10 Americans … but four in 10 new American jobs are in our state," he told a conference of state legislators from around the nation this week.
• But that doesn’t mean that all is well with employment in the Lone Star State. Texas leads the nation in minimum-wage jobs, and many positions don’t offer health benefits. Also, steep budget cuts are expected to result in the loss of more than 100,000 jobs.
• Perhaps most importantly, Texas can’t create jobs fast enough to keep up with its rapidly growing population. Since 2007, the state’s number of working-age residents expanded by 6.6%, nearly twice the national average.
• Factoring in that population growth means Texas would need to create another 629,000 jobs, or 5.6% more positions, just to reach its pre-recession employment level, according to the Economic Policy Institute.