After nearly three years of unemployment, David Mote will be back at work next week, overseeing construction of a medical school building in Dothan, Ala.
Mote, whose $2,000 weekly salary was cut to $360 in unemployment benefits before he lost even that 10 months ago, can again contemplate going out for dinner and taking in a weekend football game. It feels great, says Mote, 52. Ive got a job. I got my (health) insurance back.
His employer, Batson-Cook of Atlanta, called Mote back to work amid a surge in health care and apartment construction as young adults who had doubled up with relatives find jobs and move into their own homes.
After losing 2.2 million jobs in the economic downturn, the construction industry is projected to add 113,000 this year, more than doubling last years pace and placing it among the fastest-growing sectors, according to a 2012 job market forecast by Moodys Analytics. Even a moderate rejuvenation of the troubled sector — thanks largely to a multifamily building boom — helps the economy because of its ripple effects across industries such as furniture, steel and concrete.
The job outlook has brightened the past two months as higher consumer spending, improved business confidence and a
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