CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The president of the West Virginia chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors says there are a lot of things working together to produce a falling unemployment rate for those who work construction jobs.
Bryan Hoylman was a guest Monday on MetroNews “Talkline.” He said the decline in recent months has been 3.3 percent, the fastest rate of decline in the country.
“It looks like there’s just an overall economic sort of up-tick that is contributing to construction which is closely correlated with economic growth,” Hoylman said. “It’s a little bit of mix, sort of positivity on all angles, that we are sort of seeing.”
State lawmakers repealed the prevailing wage earlier this year. The Republican-controlled House and Senate passed the bill and then voted in February to override Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s veto. The wage is used in publicly financed construction jobs. Critics said it was too high and drove up the cost of public projects for taxpayers while opponents maintain the changes have already cost West Virginians jobs.
The repealing of the prevailing wage saved the state and local governments $22 million in total construction costs in May and June, according to Hoylman.
“There were 354 total projects in those two months. So it was a total of $275 million in total cost to the taxpayers,” he said. “As municipalities and counties and state government save on these construction costs then they can plan for additional construction projects or expand the projects they already have.”