Hey, if you like wearing a hard hat, we’ve got some happy news for you. Eau Claire is currently leading the nation in construction jobs, due mostly to what seems to be a “never stop building stuff” attitude over at Luther Midelfort. From The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

• The state of Wisconsin lost 10,400 construction jobs between February 2009 and February 2010, but of the 10 metropolitan areas to add construction jobs over the year, Eau Claire saw the largest gain for the second straight month, according to federal jobs data ..
• The Eau Claire metropolitan statistical area grew construction employment to 2,700 in February, up from 2,100 in the same month in 2009, a 29 percent increase. The area is currently seeing major construction work at an Eau Claire Nestle plant and at Luther Midelfort Mayo Health System. In January, Eau Claire added 500 jobs to lead the nation.

So, that’s awesome! Luther Midelfort is leading the charge on this. In the past few years alone, they’ve built or started building a parking ramp, a huge atrium, a new heart trauma center, a power plant, a space shuttle launching facility, a five level Barnes & Nobel, and a full-scale, working replica of the Large Hadron Collider high-energy particle accelerator located near Geneva, Switzerland.