Wednesday, September 17, 2008


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

8/26/2008


Construction Job Security Index Continues Arduous Recovery
After Seven Month Decline of 93%, Construction sees Four Months of Growth

The Scorelogix® Construction Job Security Index™, a predictor of job security in a key sector of the economy, rose to 74.6 in July, marking a 19.7% increase, and the fourth increase in as many months. This comes as a welcome development following the catastrophic decline of the JSI in the preceding seven months, dating to November 2007. The initial decline coincided directly with growing turmoil in the credit markets, and increasing foreclosures in housing. As the full scope of the issue comes into focus, a steadily increasing Construction JSI is a promising indicator that these markets have weathered the storm, and that American jobs in the Construction Industry have become much more secure.



The increase in job security in Construction has occurred across all nine of the US census regions. The West South Central region recorded the largest increase of 21.6 percent in job security compared to the regional average increase of 19.8 percent.


The strongest individual States for Construction job security include South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, and Nebraska. Michigan is by far the weakest State for Construction job security, with Mississippi, Rhode Island, Alaska, and California all struggling in this regard as well.


Since March 2008, the Construction JSI has experienced a meteoric 850% rise. This is heavily tempered by the fact that, at that time, the JSI had fallen to a dismal score of 7.8, after a seven month pounding that saw it drop from a high score of 128.2. Currently, at 74.6, the Construction JSI lags well behind the National JSI, and is still a long way from recovering to its July 2007 number. Even so, job security in Construction is much stronger today than in the preceding months, and is an indicator that builders and contractors are regaining a sense of confidence, and that the market may eventually move beyond the current turmoil.


Top 10 States: JSI

1

South Dakota

109.0

2

Wyoming

106.3

3

Utah

102.2

4

Nebraska

101.9

5

Idaho

101.4

6

North Dakota

100.8

7

Iowa

96.0

8

Oklahoma

95.7

9

New Hampshire

93.9

10

Hawaii

93.6

Bottom 10 States: JSI

1

Michigan

37.7

2

Mississippi

51.3

3

Rhode Island

52.2

4

Alaska

56.0

5

California

58.1

6

Illinois

59.6

7

District Of Columbia

61.3

8

Ohio

63.1

9

Tennessee

63.4

10

Kentucky

63.5



To obtain further information about Scorelogix’s Job Security Index, or to receive a more in depth analysis of the data provided above, email Bill Dougherty @

bill.dougherty@scorelogix.com

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