Some one's losing work on account of the housing slump. And here are the latest hard numbers. Florida has shed 254,200 construction jobs, both residential and non-residential, in nearly 3 years.

That's a 37 percent free fall from peak employment of 686,300 in July 2006. The numbers come from Ken Simonson, chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America. He spoke in Tampa on Tuesday.

When you consider those losses, the predicted employment gains from the federal stimulus seem pretty paltry. For an investment of $1-billion from Washington, Florida would probably gain 7,800 construction jobs and 3,700 jobs related to construction. That's just 4.5 percent of the jobs already lost. Better than nothing, I suppose.

But make no mistake: Economic dynamism is mostly a product of private initiative, not government spending.

Simonson also did a breakdown of prices of construction materials. In the short-term, the news is good. Steel, diesel, lumber and plywoodhave all fallen substantially since 2007-08. Asphalt, made from petroleum, should be heading down.

Prices for gypsum and drywall have held fairly steady the past 2 years. Copper prices remain flaky and subject to run ups. Once the economy recovers, expect more shortages of all of this stuff, thanks to competition from builders in China and India.

The price of materials obviously matters in establishing new home prices. But it also has a bearing on homeowners insurance as you compute replacement costs for a damaged home 

Here's Simonson's slide show: Download Agcslideshow