Florida construction lost nearly 60,000 jobs in 2009

Florida shed nearly 60,000 construction jobs in 2009, 9,400 of them in the Tampa Bay region. Tampa Bay's annual decline in construction employment was overshadowed only by Orlando's loss of 12,500 jobs. The unemployment isn't entirely surprising considering Tampa Bay builders set a record low for home construction in 2009. The report comes from the Associated General Contractors of America, which noted that construction employment fell in all but four of 337 U.S. metro areas. "The impact of the stimulus is clearly being overshadowed by the sweeping downturn in overall construction demand," association chief economist Ken Simonson said. "Without those public investments however, a bad employment situation will only get worse during 2010."