After years of bleeding jobs in the recession, the construction industry suddenly has a new problem to worry about: too much work and not enough workers.

Subcontractors across Northern Colorado say they are having a difficult time finding workers to fill openings at their companies now that construction activity is picking back up.

The problem is expected to worsen once homeowners who lost their residences in the High Park Fire begin rebuilding.

As of April, Colorado had added 7,500 construction jobs since mid-2011; the industry was growing at a rate of 4.2 percent over levels from the previous year, according to the Denver branch of the Kansas City Federal Reserve.

Good news for contractors, it would seem, in an industry that lost 59,700 jobs between 2007 and 2009, according to the Fed.

The problem today: many of those who lost their jobs moved onto other careers and are no longer available to the companies that would like to hire them.

Colorado saw a peak of 170,100 construction jobs in July 2007. As of this May, the state had 118,300 construction jobs, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.

According to the Fed, in the first three months of