San Antonio construction employment flat; project pace up

SAN ANTONIO – According to the latest employment report by The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), San Antonio is still adding employees to the construction market — but not by much.

It’s the Catch 22 of the construction industry. The number of projects in the pipeline is filling up once again. That means more and more construction firms are looking to add employees.

Now if they could just find them.

The labor pool is presently shallow at best in many markets, according to industry officials.

Over the 12 months ended July 31, 2014, local contractors added 100 jobs — going from a total of 44,300 employees in July 2013 to 44,400 a year later.

San Antonio contractors have seen an increase in the pace of projects and are working to bring on qualified, skilled employees. However, there is still a lot of ground to be made up to even get near the industry’s peak of 52,100 employees as of December 2007.