Construction jobs in Utah are 39 percent off the state’s pre-recession peak in 2007, but the numbers are gradually improving with a growth rate of 2.5 percent during the past year, according to a contractors trade group monitoring the rates.

Utah ranked 43rd among the states in construction-job recovery in a recent analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America, which is actively lobbying Congress to approve a transportation bill that would assure funding for highway, bridge, and transit projects during the next five years.