With the national economy now officially in recession, it's no surprise that the construction industry in the Mountain West is feeling the pinch just like everywhere else. Real estate markets were just beginning to cool off at the end of 2007, but by fall 2008 they had caught up with the chill in all but the worst-hit areas of the rest of the nation. Unemployment is rising. And revenue projections for state budgets are in free-fall, forcing political leaders to choose between cutting programs or raising taxes. The former course is by far the more often taken. Jim Haughey, Reed Construction Data economist, predicts declines in all non-residential construction categories in the Mountain states during 2009 will produce an overall drop of 10 percent in the value of construction contract awards for the year. The weakest category, Haughey said, will be Sewer/Water (off 43 percent). Building construction will perform best, holding to a 4-percent decline. But as this report pointed out last year at this time, the downturn's effect on individual contractors will vary depending on where they are and what their specialties are. What follows are reports from each of the state's in Rocky Mountain Construction's coverage area.
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