Employment Up, But Construction Still Struggles

According to a Washington Post article, April saw the addition of 290,00 jobs, a possible sign that the economy is starting to recover.  Jobs have been added every month since January 2010, however the unemployment rate has slightly increased.  Though Reed Construction Data reports that economic activity increased in twenty-seven states from January through March, many construction sectors are still hurting, particularly the hotel market. The Wall Street Journal describes the debt situation of many hotel chains as a muddled mess with unsure outcomes.  Many large hotel chains are struggling to refinance loans on billions of dollars of debt.  For example, budget chain Red Roof Inn has been trying to restructure $1.2 billion dollars of debt since the summer of 2009 with no forseeable outcome.  Reed Construction Data's Jim Haughey believes that hotels are at their rock-bottom levels, and that the current occupancy rate of 58 percent will slightly rise by the end of this year, with "progressive" improvement over the next few years, aided by the slowly expanding economy. For more from the Washington Post, please click here. For more information on state by state economic activity, please click here, and for a ranking of state economic performance, please click here. To read the Wall Street Journal article on hotel debt, please click here. For Reed's article on the hotel market, please click here.