Multifamily housing, warehouse construction put 7,900
more on payrolls so far this year
The recovering New Jersey housing sector and a surge in
warehouse projects has helped spark a dramatic increase in construction
employment around the state, which last year added the most construction jobs
in a decade.
The increase of 10,000 jobs in the sector in 2014, up 7.5
percent, far outstripped the 1 percent increase in all jobs over the period,
figures from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development show.
And the addition of 7,900 construction jobs in January
and February show the increase continuing into 2015.
Increased construction in the multifamily sector,
particularly along the Gold Coast, the Hudson River waterfront from Jersey City
to Fort Lee, is a key driver in the construction employment hike, said builders
and economists.
"It's getting more and more healthy each year,
without question," said George Vallone, principal of Hoboken Brownstone Co.
and president of the New Jersey Builders Association, a Hamilton-based trade
group. "And if you are in a particular sector, which is the multifam
section on the Gold Coast — it's blazing hot."
Vallone, whose company is building 2,000 residential
units on the Jersey City-Hoboken border, said so much Gold Coast construction
is under way that it's creating a "tightening in the labor market."
"They are not struggling to find workers," he
said of construction companies. "But workers are starting to come in to
work from out of state," he said.
The New Jersey figures, released last week, reverse the
picture of a year ago, when Associated General Contractors of America, a trade
group, said that New Jersey's 3.4 percent drop in construction jobs from March
2013 to March 2014 — a loss of 4,600 jobs — meant the state had shed more
construction jobs than any state in the nation. In fact, department figures
show the situation wasn't quite so bleak. Revised figures have reduced that
decline to 1,500 jobs lost in that period.
State figures show that the main increases last year came
in the residential building construction subsector and among specialty trade
contractors, who perform specific tasks such as pouring concrete and plumbing
and electrical work.
Charles Steindel, the state's former chief economist who
is now a resident scholar at the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College
of New Jersey, said the post-recession construction employment surge in 2014 is
not surprising but the fact that it took so long to arrive is.
"We were looking for it in the numbers for quite a
while," he said.
Along with housing, much of which is driven by a demand
"spillover" from New York, a big driver is probably post-Sandy
construction on the Jersey Shore, said Steindel, adding that both sectors have
seen strong figures for permits.
Builders took out 28,119 permits in 2014 — the strongest
numbers since before the recession, when housing fell into its worst downturn
since World War II, state figures show. But the 2014 figure is still well below
the average of 36,000 permits issued a year between 1960 and 2006.
The 1,177 permits issued in February was 24 percent below
the same month a year earlier, the U.S. Census said. That was likely due to the
unusually cold weather.
James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of
Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, cautioned that the large
increase in New Jersey's construction employment report for January and
February may be revised downward, because the cold weather causes problems with
the seasonal adjustment calculations used to estimate the figures. Usually the
cold weather depresses construction employment because it's tough to work
outside in such conditions, Hughes said.
He said 2014 construction figures also were pushed up by
construction on warehouses, such as the Amazon "fulfillment center"
in Robbinsville, which opened in July.
Allen Magrini, senior vice president for Hartz Mountain
Industries of Secaucus, said the company renovated warehouses in Elizabeth,
Jersey City and Secaucus, where it demolished two office buildings and
renovated warehouse space for a distribution center that was taken by Ferguson
Plumbing Supply.
That probably produced 500 to 600 jobs, he said, adding
that he expects 2015 to be a good year for the company. Hartz projects that are
likely to boost construction employment in 2015 include a 13-story building in
Journal Square Jersey City and the Edison Towne Square mall on the site of a
former Ford Motor Co. factory.
"We are bullish on the market right now,"
Magrini said. "I think the economy is expanding a bit. The financing
markets have been good."
Source: North
Jersey.com
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