Eau Claire a builder's hotbed?
Well, Barstow Street's ribbon cutting was delayed yesterday (and moved to Friday, August 9 at noon), but we've got no shortage of construction news. According to this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report on the nation’s construction industry, construction jobs have increased significantly since last year not just in Wisconsin, but across the entire nation as well.
According to new data from Associated General Contractors of America, “employment in the building trades increased in 191 of 339 U.S. metropolitan areas between June 2012 and June 2013,” the highest since March 2012. But that’s not all. Eau Claire, one of these 191 areas, was ranked 2nd (after Pascagoula, MS) in the U.S. for the percentage of new construction jobs such as mining and logging (yep, just like Paul Bunyan).
The report showed that construction jobs in the Eau Claire area have increased 31% from last year’s 3,200 to 4,200. Now that’s a lot of hard hats. This is mostly do to “a surge in construction at UWEC, manufacturing plant expansions, highway work and the construction of a new county jail,” as well as, um, the construction of a new frac-sand processing plant.
The state seems to be slowly but surely recovering from the 10,000 construction jobs lost between June 2011 and June 2012. This is good news for Sconnie construction equipment companies like Oshkosh Corp, whose sales of scissor lifts and aerial platforms jumped nearly 16% in the fiscal third quarter. They're really nailing it.
So I guess we can cue the Bachman Turner Overdrive and break out the jackhammers people.
