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Although thousands of Baltimore construction jobs were added during April, the industry lost the most workers when compared to last year.

Although the Baltimore-Towson area's April unemployment rate has yet to be released, Maryland's unemployment rate decreased from 7.7 percent to 7.5 percent that month, which is lower than the national average of 9.9 percent. Baltimore had an unemployment rate of 8 percent during March.

The Baltimore area had a total non-farm employment of 1,266,300 workers during April, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 1,250,600 workers during March, but a .8 percent decrease from last year.

The leisure and hospitality industry saw the biggest monthly increase in employment, adding 8,200 jobs between March and April. The mining, logging and construction industry - which was one of the hardest hit by the recession - added 3,200 jobs.

Other industries that increased over the month include: education and health services by 2,700 jobs; trade, transportation and utilities by 1,900 jobs; government by 1,700 jobs; professional and business services by 500 jobs; and information by 100 jobs.

Only three industries managed to see a yearly increase in employment during April, with the leisure and hospitality industry growing 5.3 percent to 118,700 jobs; the education and health services industry increasing 2.9 percent to 242,100 jobs; and the professional and business services industry rising by .5 percent to 184,000 jobs.

Although it experienced the second-largest monthly increase in employment, the construction industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year. The industry lost 12.6 percent of its workforce between April 2009 and April 2010 when it employed 62,500 people.

Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment include:

• Financial activities by 7.7 percent
• Other services by 5.6 percent
• Manufacturing by 4.6 percent
• Information by 2.3 percent
• Government by .8 percent
• Trade, transportation and utilities by .3 percent

Labels: Baltimore construction jobs