Construction Numbers May Not be What They Seem

The Washington Post rightly noted the increase of 30,000 jobs in the construction industry as one of the bright spots in the December jobs report. As the piece points out, construction was one of the largest sources of job loss in the downturn and presumably a substantial portion of the job growth in the recovery will also be construction.

However the link between construction employment and actual construction is not nearly as close as would be expected. Housing starts peaked at just under 2...