Healthy Growth Expected for Nonresidential Construction Market

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite the adverse weather conditions that curtailed design and construction activity in the first quarter of the year, the overall construction market has performed extremely well to date. The greatest amount of activity was seen in the building of commercial properties — most notably offices and hotels — with an unusually high spike in manufacturing construction spending triggered by the surge in domestic oil and natural gas production.   The American Institute of Architects" semi-annual Consensus Construction Forecast, a survey of the nation's leading construction forecasters, is projecting that spending will see a nearly nine percent increase … Read more

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Construction Employment Declines Year-Over-Year Amid Highway, Transit Funding Uncertainty

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Construction employment declined in 127 metro areas, was stagnant in 51 and increased in 180 between June 2014 and June 2015, according to a new analysis of federal employment data recently released by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials noted that the declines come as the House and Senate struggle to enact legislation to extend federal transportation investments beyond the July 31 expiration of the current program. “It is hard for construction firms to invest in new employees if they don’t know what business conditions will be like for the rest of the year,” said Ken Simonson, the … Read more

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June Construction Starts Retreat 15%

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NEW YORK, N.Y. — New construction starts in June dropped 15 percent from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $620.2 billion, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. The decline followed an especially strong May, which benefitted from a $9-billion liquefied natural gas export terminal in Texas being entered as a May start. By major sector, non-building construction in June fell sharply as the result of a steep pullback by its electric utility and gas plant category, while nonresidential building witnessed a less severe loss of momentum. Residential building in June was able to post a slight … Read more

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CMD's June Starts Treaded Water

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CMD Group recently announced that June's $30.3 billion of construction starts, excluding residential work, was almost unchanged versus May, -1.0 percent. Starts treaded water in the latest month, which is unusual given CMD's long-term May-to-June gain, due to seasonality, of 4.5 percent. June's month-to-month inertia was a pause after May's extraordinary 37.3 percent leap. May included a couple of mega-sized project groundbreakings, the likes of which weren"t repeated in June. Year-to-date starts in 2015 have also been -1.0 percent relative to the same January-to-June period of last year. Compared with its counterpart month last year, standalone June in 2015 was … Read more

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Dodge Momentum Index Declines in June

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NEW YORK, N.Y. — The Dodge Momentum Index fell to 118.3 (2000=100) in June, down 1.3 percent from 119.9 in May, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. The index is a monthly measure of the first (or initial) report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year. With the June decline, the index continued its lackluster performance thus far in 2015, and is up just 2.2 percent when compared to June 2014. Of the two major building sectors covered by the index, commercial building has recently shown … Read more

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