WHATCOM INDUSTRY REPORT: CONSTRUCTION
Recovering steadily from Recession’s punch Contractors adjusted to survive, jobs rose by 700 countywide last year
By Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy
Pictured: Houses in a subdivision on Yew Street in Bellingham by builder Greenbriar Construction. (Staff photo) 34 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
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ix years ago, the global downturn in the economy hit the construction industry like a tsunami. What does Whatcom County’s construction industry look like today? What’s expected for it in the future?
Both the commercial and residential sectors of the industry rolled with the punch, getting smaller, leaner, more efficient. “Our local contractors amazed me during the recession,” said Liz Evans, the Northern District manager for Associated General Contractors of Washington, which primarily represents commercial contractors.
Though some AGC members went out of business “…the numbers were relatively low,” Liz Evans said. “I saw most local contractors making adjustments to survive: taking little to no profit to keep people working, cutting costs, expanding traditional markets, going where the work was.”
What it’s like today In 2007, the construction industry overall employed about 270,000 workers statewide, comprising 11.2 percent of the state’s private sector. In 2012, the industry employed 195,000 statewide, or 8 percent of the private sector, as reported by a University of Washington study contracted by AGC. The number employed in construction locally increased by 700