Things aren't looking great. The Associated General Contractors of America noted that 28 states and the District of Columbia lost construction jobs between October 2011 and 2012. The number of stalled construction projects in New York City is up 17% since February, according to the New York Building Congress. Investment in nonresidential construction was down 4.4% in the third quarter, according to the first Marcum Commercial Construction Index put out by Marcum, an accounting and advisory firm. "Despite 13 consecutive quarters of economic growth, nonresidential construction has not been among the sectors experiencing meaningful recovery," noted analyst Anirban Basu.