Closer to home, high-end residential contractors with the requisite skill are flush with work and can afford to be very picky, and costly.

His father is a residential remodeling contractor in Berkeley.

Job gains last month came from manufacturers, banks, hospitals, doctors' offices, residential contractors and computer systems companies.

He was a visionary in pioneering a full service source from the foundation to the roof for residential contractors and, later, home owners.

"I've negotiated with them on three occasions," said Michael Dimare, the safety director at Allman, a commercial and residential electrical contractor.

"I stayed in a lot of classy hotels in Europe," Mr. Garrity, a residential contractor, said.

The non-profit, a licensed and insured residential contractor, constructed site-built, elevated houses on hurricane-damaged lots.

Even some residential contractors are hiring.

Texas is pushing for some sort of licensing board, she said, and the Oklahoma Legislature introduced rules during its last session to license residential contractors.

Falling rates are helpful, but they may no longer be the key factor in building activity, said Michael Hobbs, a residential contractor in Connecticut.