The Construction Industry is not the One Badly Hit When There is a Decline in House Building Winnetka

Chimney Cleaning Same Day Service Winnetka — Workers are laid off while some construction companies go bankrupt are two things that happen when there is a decline in home building. But if you think that they are the only ones affected, think again because it creates a domino effect.

Aside from those working in the construction company, those who supply the construction materials like the lumber yards and steel mills are also affected because they will not be able to sell that much compared to the last month or even last year which is why they could pose little or no growth at all when it is time to report their corporate earnings.

On a national level, there has been an increase in the number of people who are unemployed which happens to be its highest in 7 years. Just last month, 159,000 people lost their jobs and 22% of them came from the construction industry.

Naturally, such massive job losses will affect consumer spending since people will tighten their belts even further rather than buying something they like from the store.

If a house is going to be built, the homeowner is required to get a permit. This will give him the right to build on the property and is also used by the government an indicator of future building activity. If there is a decline, cities that issue these permits will also lose a certain amount of revenue thus they will not earn that much from construction as they have done so in the past for projects that they plan.

Just to show you how bleak it is, overall permits for the month of September this year in the Midwest, South and West declined by 9.8 percent, 9.9 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively.

The only one who did well was the Northeast after a recent code change in New York City but that just offset the losses it experienced in the two previous months.

These figures are important because housing does contribute to the GDP or gross domestic product of the country and since there is a slump right now, it is only natural that it has a negative effect on the economy.

But what is surprising is the fact that the decline in home building as well as the sale or resale or homes for the first time contributed to the US recession. Back in 2000 to 2001, this was blamed on the burst of the dot-com bubble or the attacks of 9/11.

Although we recovered from that and experienced growth over the 7 year period, some say that this is normal because the recession is part of the business cycle. The economy expands, slows down and then recovers. Yes people will lose jobs and some businesses will go bankrupt.

Should only the strong survive during these trying times? No because the country has experience a recession countless times and some feel that we didn’t learn our lessons from the past which is why we are here again.

Have we learned from our mistakes? Even if the $700 billion bailout plan works, some say no because it is bound to happen again unless radical changes in the system are done. The same goes for the decline in home building because maybe we should have only made homes equal to the demand but that in reality is hard to achieve.