Property Council claims 60,000 construction workers jobless ALMOST 60,000 construction workers who lost their jobs amid the global financial crisis are still unemployed, as the sector enters its third year of recession and the nation's new home building market remains in its most dire state in 40 years, according to the property industry's peak lobby group. Trades people and consultants had slashed their staff and were working on "bare bones," Property Council of Australia chief executive Peter Verwer said.