EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, MAY 25, 2001 (FRIDAY)

                                 
Public Information Office                                        CB01-94
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e-mail: pio@census.gov

Irma Harahush/Margarita Sole
301-457-3314
                                
    Value of Construction Work Done by Puerto Rico's Construction
           Firms Reaches $4 Billion, Census Bureau Reports
                                
  The Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today that the value of
construction work done by Puerto Rico's construction firms increased 55
percent, from $2.6 billion in 1992 to $4.0 billion in 1997.

  These firms employed a total of 57,000 people, including 51,000
construction workers at 1,957 locations and had an annual payroll of $697
million in 1997. That compared with 48,000 people employed, including
44,000 construction workers, and an annual payroll of $507 million in
1992.
 
  Buildings of all kinds, valued at $2.7 billion, made up 69 percent of
all construction work. Nonbuilding work on highways, bridges, sewers,
utilities and other heavy construction was valued at $1.2 billion or 31
percent.

  Other highlights of the report, titled 1997 Economic Census of Outlying 
Areas: Puerto Rico Construction Industries, include:

     Puerto Rico's construction establishments spent $1.2 billion on
     materials, components, supplies and fuels, including electric energy.
  
     In 1997, the cost of subcontractors amounted to $735 million.
     
     Among the island's 78 municipios (county equivalents), San Juan led
     in value of construction work done, with $1.5 billion. Guaynabo's
     construction firms had the second highest dollar value of
     construction work done, $705 million.
                                
  The 1997 Economic Census of Outlying Areas, which covered Puerto Rico,
Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, was conducted by
mail. Data were collected only for businesses that had one or more
employees apart from the owner.

  Released on the Internet, the Puerto Rico report provides data on
employment, construction workers, value added, selected costs, dollar
value of business done, dollar value of construction work, assets, capital
expenditures and depreciation charges.

  Data for the 1997 Economic Census of Puerto Rico were reported on a
Standard Industrial Classification basis, but future censuses will use the
North American Industry Classification System. The census is conducted
every five years in the years ending in 2 and 7.

  The data will become available in printed form and on CD-ROM later this
year. Reports on manufacturing, wholesale and retail trades, as well as
service industries have already been issued.

  The data are subject to nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors can be
attributed to many sources: inability to identify all cases in the actual
universe; definition and classification difficulties; differences in the
interpretation of questions; errors in recording or coding the data
obtained; and other errors of collection, response, coverage, processing
and estimation for missing or misreported data.