Ask certain developers, contractors or government officials what their favorite bird is, and they’ll gladly tell you – it’s the crane, of course. The construction crane.

And right now, those cranes have returned to nest across the Boston area, and they’re bringing flocks of jobs with them.

In Boston’s Seaport district, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and John Drew are creating new office and residential projects, respectively. Across the Charles River in Cambridge, Alexandria is working on a new 11-acre development project that will house Biogen Idec’s headquarters, stores, restaurants and a public park. And in the suburbs, Duffy Properties is already building the first speculative project in years along Route 128 in Burlington.

In 2012, the value of all building permits issued in the city of Boston has reached $3.3 billion, according to information from Suffolk Construction. For all of 2007, at the peak before the crash, the value of building permits in the city was $2.8 billion. So in just seven months, this year’s permit values have eclipsed the entire peak year – by 18 percent.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

With all the construction resulting from projects either stalled during the recession or more recently proposed, many of the companies directing the pile driving and steel framing are in the midst of a hiring binge, seeking seasoned professionals to orchestrate the work.

The greatest demand among many general contractors, those pulling the strings to make the marionettes dance, is for project managers and engineers, thanks to so many projects being pulled off the shelves or in the beginning stages of construction. Suffolk said it hired 34 operations staffers between January and July. Skanska’s Boston office just brought on five new project managers and engineers, and said it plans to hire more. Geoff Caraboolad, president of Boston-based Metric Construction, said his company just added five jobs in similar positions, and said he plans to have that number up to 10 by September.

Metric didn’t hire anyone between 2009 and 2011. But a number of factors are helping the company grow.

The firm is highly diversified, building projects including dormitories, military housing, entertainment venues and luxury properties, so there is often ample work to go around,  Caraboolad said. And financing has eased up for projects in prime locations – mainly the Boston area and the Northeast, where credit markets have opened up significantly.

"I still think the economy is extremely difficult and might re-trench," depending on the political climate here and the financial world overseas, Caraboolad told Banker & Tradesman. "But because of the backlog of work we have now … we’re the busiest we’ve been in 30 years, even before the crash. It’s substantially more than before the recession. If the economy stays steady, this market will continue to grow."

Change Is Good

But the boom may not last forever, particularly in these still-delicate times.

Caraboolad warned the construction industry as a whole "will pull back because of where the economy is. There can only be so much apartment absorption. If people start losing jobs again or being concerned about their jobs, then everything pulls back."

And he’s not the only one concerned about the multitude of multifamily projects on the market.

All the projects underway are good for the trades. But the multifamily work can only last so long, said state Rep. Martin Walsh, D-Dorchester, who also serves as general agent for the city’s Building and Trades Council.

"Personally, I’m concerned about the future," Walsh said. "Most of the construction is big-time residential projects. The other stuff is specialty commercial like Vertex and the Liberty Mutual headquarters. There’s not much new general, corporate office space being built yet. You can only build so many apartments."

Even so, there will be "a bubble" from the end of this calendar year and well into next year caused by the increased demand for finish carpenters and other trades as many projects underway now get into the latter construction stages, said Mark DiNapoli, president and general manager for Suffolk Construction in the Northeast.

And there are still major projects that are just now in the planning stages – including a potential casino at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, the Millennium tower in Boston’s Downtown Crossing, and Harvard University’s plans to transform an entire swath of the Allston neighborhood of Boston – that are coming down the pike, DiNapoli said.

But going forward, construction executives and general contractors will need to start thinking outside of traditional projects for business development, said Paul Hewins, executive vice president for Skanska. Hewins recently noticed an uptick in civil projects, like bridge repair, an area where his firm is just starting to focus more of its efforts in the Northeast.

"As we’re just coming out of the last recession, people need to be more cost-effective and efficient," Hewins said. "Using modeling and advanced techniques is a given, it’s not unique anymore. Companies can’t keep doing things in the traditional ways. It feels like the industry has really, finally changed."