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Bellwethers: The construction industry is about to take off

And 1.6 million new construction jobs could follow.


Terry Segerberg knows when the construction industry is about to slow down or take off — before the builders do.

She knew it six months before the housing bubble popped and the industry laid off a couple of million workers, when she sensed builders moving from new projects to remodeling ones — a sign that activity was ebbing.

And she knows the opposite is happening now, she’s sure of it, has known it for a while: Activity is picking up. Folks are building new things — offices and prisons other non-residential things, mostly — and jobs are almost certain to follow. “We’ve spent the last 18 months prepping for significant growth,” she said last week.

Segerberg is the CEO of Mesa Industries Inc., which sells materials and equipment to construction firms across the country and around the world. She gauges the industry’s health through the orders coming in her door in Cincinnati. In that sense, Segerberg is a critical barometer for the U.S. labor market, which rose (such as it was) and fell over the past 15 years with the fortunes of the construction industry.

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Source: The Washington Post

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