The construction employment picture improved during July for most the country, the Associated General Contractors of America said.

There were 26 states that added construction jobs during the month, compared with 19 during June. Six states have added construction jobs during the last year. Most of the others are seeing numbers starting to stabilize or at least a slowdown in the job losses, officials said.

However, Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, said he doesn’t expect the numbers to get much better.

“Encouraging as it is to see some modest signs of progress, it is increasingly unlikely we’ll keep seeing these kinds of gains over the next few months,” Simonson said. “There is little to indicate that construction will be adding workers to a significant extent any time soon.”

Much of the current improvement could be related to government-backed stimulus funding — which will eventually run out, he said.

“There are few signs of life in privately funded construction, and state and local budget deficit projections are forcing further cuts in non-stimulus public projects,” he said.