Construction and Housing 1946-47 Bulletin No. 941 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR L. B. Schwellenbach, Secretary BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Ewan Clague, Commissioner For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. Price 25 cents Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Letter of Transmittal United States Department op Labor, Bureau op Labor Statistics, Washington, D. June 4,1948. The Secretary op Labor: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report on construction activity and employment for the years 1946 and 1947. This report, which was prepared by the staff of the Branch of Construction Statistics, presents through the analysis of data gathered by that Branch the story of the postwar revival of the construction industry. The planning and major part of the text preparation for the report was done by Dorothy Newman, assisted by Adela Stucke. The statistical data and analyses were prepared under the direction of Henry F. Haase and Edward M. Gordon. Ewan Claque, Commissioner. Hon. L. B. SCHWELLENBACH, Secretary oj Labor. n Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Preface This report provides detailed statistics describing the shifts and trends in con­ struction activity after World War II, and a brief interpretation of the reasons be­ hind them. It is the latest of a series of yearly bulletins on construction which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been publishing since 1921. The figures in earlier years covered only building construction in the largest cities. Considerable expansion in the Bureau’s construction statistics program has occurred during the past decade, so that figures are now available for building construction in the urban areas of the country as a whole and in about 2,500 cities. Estimates of ex­ penditures for all of the major types of construction, nonbuilding as well as building, are prepared in cooperation with the United States Department of Commerce. In addition, special statistics are now provided on the volume of Federal construction, on the characteristics and kinds of labor involved in construction work, on construction employment, and on homebuilding. In recent years, because of the critical housing problem and the importance of homebuilding in the total construction picture, the Bureau has paid special attention to developing and improving its statistics on the volume of nonfarm housing. Data on housing in the present bulletin incorporate the latest refinements in statistical method that have been devised by the Bureau’s Branch of Construction Statistics and reflect the results of special housing surveys conducted after the war. The text deals in some detail with the progress of postwar housing construction, relating the develop­ ments in activity to economic and regulatory changes. m Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Contents Postwar construction expenditures: Pax« Volume of new construction________________________________________________________ 1 Monthly trend____________________________________________________________________ 5 Construction employment: National trends.-------- -------- 7 Leading States____________________________________________________________________ 9 Geographic shifts__________________________________________________________________ 10 Irregularity of construction employment......................... 12 Comparative labor requirements: Different kinds of construction_____________________________________________________ 13 Different skills and occupations_____________________________________________________ 15 Housing______________________________________________________________________________ 16 The urban estimate________________________________________________________________ 18 Estimating rural nonfarm housing__________________________________________________ 18 Government role in housing effort, 1946-47________________________ 18 Reconversion housing program_____________________________________________________ 19 Veterans' Emergency Housing Program_____________________________________________ 19 Rental housing____________________________________________________________________ 22 Housing completions_______________________________________________________________ 25 Shifts in location of new housing____________________________________________________ 25 Housing in local areas_____________________________________________________________ 26 Building construction in cities: Volume________________ 31 Location__________________________________________________________________________ 34 Appendix—Supplementary tables: Value of Federal construction contract awards (tables A -l and A-2)__________________ 43 Statistics relating to construction costs (tables A-3 to A-9)___________________________ 44 Text Tables 1. —Expenditures for new construction put in place, by type of construction, 1915-47-------- 2 2. —Expenditures for new construction put in place, in 1939 prices, by type of construction, selected years___________________________________________________________________ 4 3. —Federal expenditures for new construction put in place, by type of construction, 1915-47. 5 4. —Expenditures for new construction put in place, by type of construction, monthly, 1946-47. 6 5. —Employment by construction contractors, monthly, 1939-47----------------------------------- 8 6. —Employment by construction contractors, compared with nonagricultural employment, 1929-47________________________________________________________________ _______ 9 7. —Employment by construction contractors, by region and State, 1943-47--------------------- 10 8. —Employment by construction contractors, by region and State, quarterly, 1943-47------ 11 9. —Percentage distribution of male construction workers, classified by regularity of employ­ ment and type of employing contractor, 1943------------------------------------------------ 13 10. —Number of workers required on and off site to put in place new construction, by type of construction, 1939-47___ 14 11. —Number of site workers required to put in place new construction, by skill and occupation, selected years, 1941, 1942, 1946, and 1947---------------------------------------------------------16 12. —Number of new permanent nonfarm dwelling units started, by urban or rural location and by source of funds, 1920-47________ 17 13. —Number of new nonfarm dwelling units started, by source of funds and whether permanent or temporary, 1935-47__________________________________________________________ 20 14. —Total number of living accommodations provided during the Veterans' Emergency Housing Program, 1946-47..------- 21 15. —Number and percentage distribution of new permanent nonfarm dwelling units started in 1-family, 2-family, and multifamily structures, 1920-47-------------------------------------- 23 16. —New urban dwelling units authorized, by type and structure and by city-size class, 1946- 47................................................................................... ......................................- ............................... 24 v Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis VI CONTENTS Text Tables—Continued Page 17. —Number of new permanent nonfarm dwelling units started, completed, and under con­ struction, monthly, 1946-47--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 18. —Percent of new permanent nonfarm dwelling units started inside and outside of metro­ politan areas, 1946-47___________________________________________________________ 26 19. —New urban dwelling units authorized, by type of structure and by geographic division, 1946-47________ _________ _____________________________________________ ______ 27 20. —New urban dwelling units authorized in each State, by source of funds, 1946-47-------- 28 21. —Number of new privately financed nonfarm dwelling units started in some representative industrial areas and urban counties, 1946 and first 9 months of 1947------------------------ 30 22. —Indexes of the valuation of urban building authorized, by class of construction, 1929-47-- 31 23. —Urban building authorized, by source of funds, 1942-47---------------------------------------- 32 24. —New urban nonresidential building authorized, by general type of building and by region, 1946-47______________________________________________________________ -..........— 33 25. —New urban nonresidential building authorized, by type of building and source of funds, 1946-47________ ____ ________________________________ _________________________ 34 26. —Urban building authorized, by region and State and by source of funds, 1946-47-------- 36 27. —Urban building authorized, by city-size class and source of funds, 1946-47__________ 37 28. —Cities leading in various types of building construction authorized, 1947__________— 38 29. —Building construction authorized in cities with 1940 population of 50,000 or more, 1946-47. 39 Appendix Tables VALUE OF FEDERAL CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AWARDS A -l.—Value of contracts awarded and force-account work started on federally financed new construction, by type of construction, 1935-47___________________________________ 43 A-2.—Value of contracts awarded and force-account work started on federally financed new construction, by region and State, 1943-47______________________________________