Construction employment continues to drop rapidly at a pace little changed from previous months. 30,000 of the October layoffs were made by nonresidential subcontractors which is consistent with the current rapid decline in this sector. However, nonresidential general contractors only cut 3,000 jobs. This disparity suggests that business expense cut mandates are deeply trimming maintenance, repair and small remodeling projects done directly withy subcontractors. A similar cutback in small residential projects occurred earlier in the recession.

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