Business & Tech
National Study: Rise in Construction Jobs Includes Farmington Hills
City Manager Steve Brock believes construction of GreenPath Debt Solutions' corporate offices helped drive the increase.
A national study released Monday named Farmington Hills as one of the top metro areas in the country to see an increase in construction employment jobs from August 2010 to August 2011.
The study, which was conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America by analyzing federal employment data, found that employment in construction rose about 10 percent — or 3,800 new jobs — during the past year in the Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills area.
Brock said GreenPath Debt Solutions' new corporate headquarters project at 12 Mile Road and Investment Drive likely drove the local increase in construction jobs.
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The four-story, 125,000-square-foot project, which broke ground in April 2010, already has a few floors occupied. GreenPath is building on more than 10 acres, not far from its existing headquarters.
"At any one time, there's probably 100 or more people on the site," Brock said.
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He said construction workers are also on sites for smaller projects, such as office remodeling, throughout the city.
The study found construction employment in Michigan is up 10 percent, or about 13,300 jobs in the past year. In addition to the gains in Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, about 3,400 new jobs were added in the Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn area.
The study didn't break down individual statistics for Farmington Hills. It identified the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale area as the area with the largest loss of construction jobs at about 7,000.
"The construction market is caught between increases in private sector demand and even larger decreases in public sector construction investments," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist, in a news release.
Private sector spending on construction has grown by about 5.5 percent since July 2010, Simonson said, while public sector demand declined about 8.8 percent during the same period.
"Construction employment continues to be stuck in a pattern where there are just as many hot spots as there are slow spots," he said.
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