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52 | Th e M Rep o RT o r i g i nat i o n s e r v i c i n g a na ly t i c s s e c o n da r y M a r k e t ANALYTICS the latest labor Force for residential construction is 3.5 Million strong Survey Shows residential construction employment is on the upswing after bottoming out in 2011, but it hasn't yet returned to levels experienced during the housing boom. a bout 8.9 million people worked in construction in 2013, according to the most recent American Community Survey (ACS) released last month by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). According to the NAHB, an estimated 3.5 million people worked in residential construction, accounting for 2.4 percent of the employed civilian labor force in the U.S. These numbers show modest job gains since 2011 when construction employment bottomed out. Employment levels within the industry remain lower than in the housing boom, when more than 11 million people worked in construction and homebuilding employed more than 5 million people. The NAHB residential con- struction employment estimates include self-employed workers. Counting self-employed workers is particularly important in the homebuilding industry, because they traditionally make up a larger share of the labor force. According to the 2013 ACS, one out of four construction work- ers is self-employed, while the economy-wide average does not reach 10 percent of the employed labor force. California had the most residential construction work- ers. Almost 0.5 million California residents worked in homebuild- ing in 2013, accounting for 2.9 percent of the state's employed labor force. Florida came in second with 295,000 residential construction workers. Florida has fewer residents than Texas and about as many as New York but employs more residential con- struction workers, accounting for a relatively high 3.5 percent of the employed state labor. Even though this share is well above the national average, it is drastically lower than in 2005 when Florida registered the highest share among all 50 states and the District of Columbia at 6.2 percent. Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico are still slow to show job increases after being hit hard by the housing crisis. Nevada has a job loss of 57.3 percent, Arizona's is 51.5 percent, and New Mexico's sits at 49.7 percent. Despite these significant job losses, homebuild- ing in Nevada and Arizona continues to employ a relatively high share of local workers—2.9 percent of the employed civilian labor force in Nevada and 2.5 percent in Arizona. States with a high prevalence of seasonal, vacation homes top the list of states with the highest share of residential construc- tion workers in 2013. Idaho, with almost 4 percent of the employed labor force work- ing in homebuilding, takes the top spot on the list. Vermont, Montana, Maine, Utah, and New Hampshire are next on the list. The NAHB estimates show that the average congressional district has close to 7,900 resi- dents working in residential con- struction, but that number can be significantly higher and actu- ally exceeds 16,000 in Montana's single congressional district. Idaho's 1st district comes in second with more than 15,000 residents employed in home- building. Texas' 29th district, which serves the eastern part of the greater Houston area, is a close third with just under 15,000 residential construction workers residing there. New York's 1st district concludes the top ten list with more than 13,000 homebuilding workers residing there. By design, congressional districts are drawn to repre- sent roughly the same number of people, so generally, large numbers of residential construc- tion workers translate into high shares of residential construc- tion workers in their district employed labor forces. The 29th district of Texas has the highest share of residential construction workers in its employed labor force at 4.8 percent. Florida's 18th and 19th districts are close behind with 4.7 and 4.5 percent.