When the economy goes down fewer people build, and that means fewer jobs for workers in construction trades, and in the current economic situation the jobs for construction workers have gone down the drain, but it look like those hard working people may have a reason to be happy in 2012.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors there are going to be more jobs in the construction trades this year. The survey showed that construction firms in many states are getting ready to hire. More importantly, for the first time in a long time, they are ready to hire more people then they fire this year. Given the nature of construction projects, where workers are let go at the end of the project, and only rehired if and when their skills are needed again, this is encouraging news for a great number of workers.

This good news is compounded by the fact that the research found that fewer construction firms are expecting to layoff fewer workers this year, thanks to an expected increase in the number of construction projects that are supposed to happen in the 2012 fiscal year. So we can expect fewer job losses and a nice amount of growth in the construction trades.

Of course, the situation is not the same in every state. Many states are experiencing some of the benefits of the increase, but not all of them. This is due to a number of factors including the economic condition in the state, the number of incentives are given to companies to build and the types of industries in the local area.

Let’s take a look at a few of the results for different states. Take for example the state of North Carolina.  In that state it was found that 41 percent of construction firms in the state were laying off workers last year. A significantly lower portion, about 12 percent of the firms in the survey, expect to layoff workers this year.  When it comes to hiring about 31 percent of firms in the state actually added jobs last year. This year only 19 percent of firm expect to hire this year.

If you would like to get an idea of what the changes to the construction trades in your home state, or your local labor market, here is a list of the links, broken down by state, so that you can read the reports for yourself, and make the best economic decisions.

• Alabama
• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Iowa
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• North Carolina
• Nebraska
• New York
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• Washington
• Wisconsin

Enjoy the good news and the data for your local area! Just remember that this data does not give you a look at which trades will be more in demand, as hiring for certain specialists may be better than the overall outlook.