Building jobs on rebound

Construction employment is on the rise in Arizona and across the U.S., according to an economist who spoke Tuesday at a national construction-industry convention in Phoenix. In 2011, Arizona construction jobs increased by 1.6 percent, the 11th-highest increase among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to Anirban Basu, chief economist for Arlington, Va.-based trade group Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. The top-ranked state in 2011 for construction-job growth was North Dakota, where employment increased by 5.7 percent, due primarily to energy-related projects, Basu said. Basu was among a group of economists, journalists and industry leaders who spoke at the 2012 BizCon convention, held Tuesday and Wednesday at the Arizona Biltmore hotel in Phoenix. "The construction industry is now beginning to recover," he said. Basu pointed to three key indicators of the construction industry's health, all of which have turned positive in recent months.

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