Orlando Construction Jobs Continue Yearly Decline

Even though the industry has continued to add jobs on a monthly basis, more Orlando construction jobs have been lost when compared to last year.

During April, the Orlando area's unemployment rate decreased from 12.1 percent to 11.4 percent, following a decrease from 12.6 percent during March. Despite the latest decrease, the city's rate is still higher than the national average at the time of 9.9 percent.

The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area had a total non-farm employment of 997,800 workers during April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 998,600 workers during March and a 2.3 percent decrease from last year.

In a positive trend, the construction industry continued to add jobs over the month, increasing by 600 workers between March and April. However, the industry continued to take the biggest hit in yearly employment, losing 14.5 percent of its workforce to 48,400 jobs.

The education and health services industry, which added 500 jobs between March and April, experienced the only yearly increase in employment. The industry employed 120,400 workers during April.

The manufacturing industry added 600 jobs over the month, but decreased by 1.8 percent between April 2009 and April 2010. The leisure and hospitality and government industries each added 100 jobs between March and April, but they dropped by 1.5 percent and .3 percent over the year, respectively.

Employment in the mining and logging industry remained even over the month and year with 200 jobs.

Other industries that saw a drop in employment over the year include: