By Shalia Dewan | The New York Times
In a perfect world for the housing industry, the employment picture contains a virtuous cycle in which housing drives jobs and jobs drive housing. Some analysts found evidence of that Friday in the January jobs report.
The construction sector had its largest gain — 48,000 jobs — in almost four years. While some of that was a recovery from a drop of 22,000 jobs in December, the residential component of the sector did not drop in December and has added close to 200,000 jobs since housing began to recover in early 2012. Of course, the housing sector sank so low during the crash that it is still seeing a rebound effect. Last month the nation’s largest home builder, D.R. Horton, said its quarterly earnings had risen by 86 percent.
