Dallas Construction Jobs Lost

As the construction industry throughout most of the country is beginning to recover, Dallas construction jobs are continuing to be lost, and now one local company will add to those cuts.

Rodman LLC, a site development construction firm based in nearby Frisco, recently announced that it will close the company's Texas operations. That move will result in a loss of 242 jobs throughout Texas, including 224 in Frisco.

According to a letter filed with the Texas Workforce Commission, Rodman is closing because the company has been unable to find capital. The company also has offices in Austin and San Antonio.

Rodman was founded in 1990 by President Rodney Vilhauer and partner Barry Rich, in part with a $20,000 investment from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, according to The Dallas Morning News.

The company's closing comes as Texas continues to lose more construction jobs. During March, the state's construction industry lost 6,300 jobs as the rest of the nation as a whole added 15,000 construction jobs.

"Texas was later coming into the recession than most of the country," Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, said. "For now, Texas is down. But I think it can come back strongly."

The Dallas-Plano-Irving area's mining, logging and construction industry employed 98,900 jobs during March, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the same as during February, but a 14.3 percent decrease from last year.

During March, the Dallas area's unemployment rate decreased from 8.4 percent to 8.3 percent, following a decrease from 8.7 percent during February. That decrease keeps the area's rate lower than the national average of 9.7 percent.

The Dallas area had a total non-farm employment of 1,995,600 workers during March, according to the BLS. This is up from 1,991,400 workers during February, but a 1.4 percent decrease from last year.