Manufacturing Up, Construction Down, Medium-Sized Businesses Rock

The good news from the most recent ADP National Employment Report is that there was an increase in the number of manufacturing jobs last month -- up by 20,000. The bad news is that construction jobs decreased by 9,000 during the same period. Additionally, private sector employment increased by 217,000 across all industries from January to February.

The loss of 9,000 construction jobs wasn't entirely unexpected, since severe weather halted building in many areas of the United States. But the total decline in construction employment since its peak in January 2007 is 2,130,000, which could partially be attributed to the fact that U.S. banks continue their tight-fisted lending policies -- which puts many construction and business projects on hold.