RPT-US construction jobs drop in June-trade group

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WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. construction industry shed jobs in 333 metropolitan areas in June from the year ago period, with Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Reno-Sparks, Nevada, both losing one out of every three jobs, a trade group said on Tuesday.

Over 200 metropolitan areas suffered double-digit percentage declines in construction jobs in the period, the Associated General Contractors of America said, based on data on 352 metropolitan areas.

Only 10 cities gained construction jobs in June. The biggest gain was in Columbus, Indiana, where building jobs grew more than 31 percent, the group found.

The Labor Department said in its employment report earlier this month that 79,000 construction jobs were shed nationwide in June, after 48,000 in April and 103,000 in May.

The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February was intended to give construction workers who lost their jobs when the housing bubble burst new professional opportunities.

The House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said on Monday it has created or saved 49,377 jobs so far through capital works projects.

A saved job is one that would have been eliminated if not for stimulus money. A job counts as created if it did not exist before a stimulus grant was given to a project.

The federal government is now posting the contracts awarded to carry out stimulus projects on its Website, www.recovery.gov. So far, the largest transportation-related contract has been granted to Jacobs Engineering Group in Arlington, Virginia at $37.53 million.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )