Carpentry work crashing down

The Washington Post reports:

In May 2006, about 1 million people were employed as carpenters, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By last year, that number had shrunk to less than 750,000. Economists predict it is unlikely to climb back to those levels for years.

To get a closer look at the phenomena, The Washington Post tracked down 31 carpenters who had worked on one of the biggest projects in Las Vegas, a city that was swept up in the speculative building frenzy and now has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

Today, at least 22 of the 31 are unemployed, many of them for a year.

The fallout from excess square footage.