Sector's employment numbers murky

<p>Over the past three years, one in four construction workers in Sonoma County lost their jobs.</p><p>The sector has shed almost 3,700 jobs since 2006, according to state labor figures.</p><p>But for several months last year, construction employment stopped shrinking -- and even started growing, the state reported.</p><p>Is that growth real?</p><p>It depends on who you ask.</p><p>County officials say the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program measurably increased construction jobs here last year. The program paid out more than $16 million in 2009 for solar electric systems and other energy and water saving improvements on existing residential and commercial properties.</p><p>"It is our belief that this program was a reason for the increase in construction-related jobs," said Brad Sherwood, a spokesman for the county Water Agency. The water agency and the county together provided $100 million to begin the program.</p><p>Construction industry officials applaud the county's efforts to spur green building projects. But some argue the government officials are overstating the program's impact on local construction employment.</p><p>Keith Woods, chief executive officer for the North Coast Builders Exchange in Santa Rosa, disputes the claim that the green program helped boost the county's construction employment by 8.4 percent between January and September last year.</p><p>"I'll eat my hat if they can show me there's been an 8.4 percent increase," said Woods.</p><p>Woods said he contacted nearly three dozen of his group's members and found that overwhelmingly they doubted there had been any significant increase in employment.</p><p>Both sides care about the numbers. For the county, which last year received $40 million in requests to finance green projects, Sherwood suggested the figures help explain why its new program is drawing attention from the Obama administration and others nationally.</p><p>Woods, meanwhile, said the employment figures have been used by a local official to dispute the Builders Exchange's claim that the construction industry is hurting and needs relief from high building fees.</p><p>A county study on the program's impact reports the state's finding that 10,700 workers held construction jobs here in January. That number peaked at 11,600 jobs for both August and September, a jump of 8.4 percent. The county's green program made the year's biggest monthly payment, amounting to $4.2 million, for work done in August. Nearly $3 million more was paid for work in September.</p><p>But the study does include some caveats. First, the same seasonal rise in employment also occurred in 2008, when the green program didn't exist, though at a lesser rate that year. And while county officials like to point out that employment numbers in Napa and Solano counties fell even as Sonoma's employment grew in 2009, the same trend occurred in 2008.</p><p>Robert Eyler, director of the Center for Regional Economics at Sonoma State University, who examined the job numbers for the county, said neither Woods nor the county officials are wrong.</p><p>"Keith represents the on-the-street viewpoint," Eyler said, "and I totally agree that it is not easy to get work in the trades."</p><p>But the state data, while somewhat imprecise, show an increase, Eyler said. Without the green program, "the construction industry probably would have been worse off from a lack of spending."</p>