Although the rest of the nation’s economy is opening in the wake of Covid-19’s decline, nonresidential construction saw a nearly 1% decline in June, according to a new study released by the Associated Builders and Contractors.
The decline was seen in eight sectors, including conservation and development, public safety, and transportation.
Education sector construction is down by nearly 11% over where it was in June 2020, with religious institutional work off by just under 15%.
One of the largest year-to-year declines was recorded in the lodging sector, off by 26.6% from the early summer of 2020.
In a statement, Anirban Basu, chief economist with the American Builders and Contractors, noted that overall nonresidential spending is down by 12% over January of 2020, and has been generally moving in a downward direction for most of this spring and summer.
“Many contractors report rising backlog and strong expectations for sales, staffing and profit margin growth over the balance of the year,” noted Basu, before adding: “Yet the macroeconomic data continue to show an industry struggling to stabilize the pandemic-induced recession.”
Basu went on to note that even though the demand for construction remains high across the country, the industry continues to be hampered by supply chain and worker shortages. Those shortages, in turn, are negatively impacting demand.
The year-to-year decline was the lowest in the water supply sector, manufacturing, and commercial sectors, with the sewerage and waste disposal sector actually posting a 2.2% increase over June of 2020.
By Garry Boulard