Washington’s construction employment rose by 3,800 workers in January over December 2009, but the state’s total employed construction workforce is still down 34,400 from January 2009.

Those figures come from a newly released employment study by the Associated General Contractors of America.

That study found construction employment was down in every state and in the District of Columbia over January 2009.

The study ranked Washington among the hardest hit of the states with a 19.1 percent drop in its construction workforce employed year-to-year. Only six states had a larger reduction year-to-year in their construction employment measured as a percentage of the total construction workforce in January a year ago.

Speaking of the national employment picture, Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, said the construction industry has yet to show signs of revival.

“Construction employment is dropping everywhere and plummeting almost everywhere,” said Simonson. “Looking at this data, it is quite clear that the construction industry has yet to hit bottom.”

Simonson noted that California lost more construction jobs, 128,700, while North Dakota lost the least jobs, 200, over the past twelve months. The five states with the largest percentage decline in employment were Nevada (29.9 percent); Arizona (26 percent); Colorado (22.2 percent); Idaho (21 percent); and Florida (20.4 percent).

North Dakota (1 percent); Nebraska (4.1 percent); Alaska (4.2 percent); South Dakota (5.9 percent); and Arkansas (6.2 percent) experienced the smallest decline in construction employment.