The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo said that their Builder Sentiment Indexrose for the fifth straight month,it still has a way to go to get back to its precrash high from July 2007.

Any graduates from the Heavy Equipment School looking for work in the oil fields go to www.ndoiljobs .com that web site can direct you to a host of different sites ,all related to the oil fields,www.rigzone.com has jobs posted for all over the world.You can specify what part of the country you are willing to go to work in,and they will email you when a job opens up in that part of the country.

Out of the 20 largest metropolitan areas in CA 17 of them saw a small increase in new home sales during the last quarter of 2011.That is two years in a row but it is still a long way to go before it gets back to where it was in 2007.New home sales is the driving force behind our economic woes.It is estimated that for every two houses that are built ,their are one to one and a half full time jobs created.Their is no industry that can create so much full time unsubsidized employment like new home sales.

A recent study showed employment rates increasing slightly throughout the nation, but there may be more hope for the industry in Texas than other states.

The Associated General Contractors of America surveyed 337 metropolitan areas from September 2010 to September 2011. The number of construction jobs remained constant in about half of those places, according to the data, while the other half gained jobs instead.

The federal government is months late in passing a number of infrastructure bills – bills that set funding levels for investing in new water systems, in airport construction – and that’s really making it difficult for state and local officials to finance and then to plan the kind of construction projects that relieve traffic in Austin or elsewhere.

Texas’ construction industry had a three percent increase in jobs statewide. The Houston/Sugar Land/Baytown area added a combined 4,500 construction jobs in the past year – more than any other metro area in the country.Austin also gained, adding 2,000 jobs.

“The industry took a downturn for a couple of years in general, along with a downturn in the economy, but we’ve recently – this year specifically – seen a slow improvement that we hope continues into next year,” said Brian Rust of the contracting company Rust & Sons Construction, which has offices in Dallas and Austin.

The Texas Department of Transportation expects to complete a $26 million construction project this month. Four ramps will connect east and westbound Ben White Freeway to southbound Interstate 35.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said Tuesday that the percentage of mortgage borrowers who have missed one payment, fell to 8% in the third quarter from 8.4% in the second quarter.

The percentage of borrowers more than 30 days delinquent but less than 60 days late fell the most, to a four-year low of 3.2% from 3.5% in the second quarter.

That drop suggests that fewer borrowers are falling behind for the first time, which will reduce foreclosures years from now.

Still, 4.2 million borrowers are more than 90 days delinquent. Most of those borrowers will lose their homes to foreclosure or other distressed sales.

That will continue to put pressure on home prices, said Paul Dales, economist at Capital Economics. He expects U.S. home prices, down about 4% from last year, to stay flat next year.

Single-family starts were up 3.9% from September.

Permits, which are better indicator of future activity, rose 5.1% for single-family homes and 24% for multi-family units, the Commerce Department said.

The October results point to a single-family market that’s "finally getting off the mat" and a multi-family segment that’s making "small strides," said Patrick Newport, economist at IHS Global Insight. Still, single-family home starts and permits are likely to set record lows this year, Newport says.

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A truck transporting a huge windmill blade tried making a left turn…and the rear portion of said blade (tip) hangs out over the end of the wheels…and another semi behind him, apparently in a big rush, attempted to turn right BEFORE the blade cleared the intersection, and the 2nd semi’s trailer got lodged underneath…ripping the top of the trailer, and getting them all STUCK…call in crane, to lift blade off top of 2nd semi. Ya think he’s gonna have a job after today?

Perry, who is formally launching his presidential candidacy on Saturday, is making his state’s economic prowess a centerpiece of his campaign. Already he’s been bragging about his state being the "epicenter of job growth."

Texas has gained more than 1 million net new jobs in the decade Perry has led the state. And it’s been going strong since the recession ended.

"We are home to fewer than one in 10 Americans … but four in 10 new American jobs are in our state," he told a conference of state legislators from around the nation this week.

But that doesn’t mean that all is well with employment in the Lone Star State. Texas leads the nation in minimum-wage jobs, and many positions don’t offer health benefits. Also, steep budget cuts are expected to result in the loss of more than 100,000 jobs.

Perhaps most importantly, Texas can’t create jobs fast enough to keep up with its rapidly growing population. Since 2007, the state’s number of working-age residents expanded by 6.6%, nearly twice the national average.

Factoring in that population growth means Texas would need to create another 629,000 jobs, or 5.6% more positions, just to reach its pre-recession employment level, according to the Economic Policy Institute.