Construction workers are more likely to be without insurance for a year than workers in any other nonfarm industry in the state, according to a study released Tuesday by a San Diego nonprofit group.

The labor-friendly Center on Policy Initiatives found that 27 percent of construction workers were chronically uninsured for a year and more than 40 percent were uninsured at least part of the year.

Construction workers are 4.6 times more likely to die on the job than the average private industry worker and more than 20 percent reported health problems in the past month that affected their work and other activities, according to the study.

About 35 percent of construction workers received health insurance through their jobs in 2005, a year researchers noted would make the figure higher than normal because that was during the construction boom. Still, that makes construction second only to hotel and food service among California industries with the lowest rates of employer-sponsored health coverage.