According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in heavy construction trades have actually increased during the past year. Although overall construction employment nationally dropped by 14,000 jobs in September and is 1.5 percent lower than levels a year ago, jobs in nonresidential building, specialty trades and heavy and civil engineering have risen by 42,000 -- 1 percent -- in that time.

Ken Simonson, of Associated General Contractors of America, an Arlington, Va.-based national trade association for the construction industry, said the media's preoccupation with new home construction has caused it to overlook commercial construction, which is thriving. He cited major commercial development in the metro-east, including Peabody Energy's $2.9 billion, 1,600-megawatt, Prairie State Energy Campus coal-fired power plant under construction in Lively Grove, which is expected to open in 2012.

"Obviously, those things are not subject to pullback by lenders who may be skittish about putting up another limited service hotel by the interstate or investing in housing development," Simonson said.

"One percent is a pretty modest increase. In fact, it's missing a lot of workers classified as being in the residential specialty trade who are now working on commercial products, such as offices and stores and hotels and doing things like installing wall boards and wiring and lumbering."

Closer to home, Belleville labor market economist Vicki Niederhofer, of the Illinois Department of Employment Security, also pointed out that the power plant, along with new ethanol manufacturing plants in Sauget and planned refinery expansion at the ConocoPhillips Wood River Refinery in Roxana, have provided a surge in construction employment. Plus, retail development at Belleville Crossing, Collinsville Crossing, Edwardsville Crossing, Central Park in O'Fallon, Green Mount Crossing in Shiloh and Green Mount Commons in Belleville and elsewhere continues to provide jobs.

"Those projects reflect a robust outlook for construction in our region," Niederhofer said. "We continue to see more robust retail expansion."