Construction Economic News

Megaproject Authorizations Remain Upbeat ConstructConnect announced today that October 2022’s volume of construction starts, excluding residential work, was $47.5 billion, a decline of -8.2% compared with September’s figure of $51.7 billion (originally reported as $51.1 billion).

After a string of months with barely positive or backtracking employment change, Canada struck it rich in October, +108,000 jobs. The biggest portion of the +108,000 gain was provided by services jobs, +63,000 according to Statistics Canada, but manufacturing and construction also had good hiring months, +24,000 and +25,000 jobs, respectively.

ConstructConnect’s annual construction starts statistics for bricks and mortar retail sites are set out in Graph 1. The history goes back to 2005, and the forecast portion of the chart extends to 2026.

A month ago, the Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a U.S. total jobs-count increase during September of +263,000. Now, for the month of October, a nearly identical change in total employment has been estimated by the BLS, +261,000 jobs. (By the way, September’s figure has just been revised to +315,000.)

After a gloomy patch in late summer and early fall, dominated by discussion of inflation and recession, the economic and construction news is beginning to lighten a bit. The first ray of sunshine has come in the 2022 third quarter advance estimate GDP report. Rather than retreating or standing still, Q3 real gross domestic product advanced by +2.6% seasonally adjusted and annualized, improving nicely on the -0.6% and -1.6% performances of Q2 and Q1, respectively.

Megaprojects Reignited Starts in September ConstructConnect announced today that September 2022’s volume of construction starts, excluding residential work, was $51.1 billion, an increase of +26.0 compared with August’s figure of $40.6 billion (originally reported as $40.0 billion).

The accompanying table records the top 10 project starts in the United States for August 2022.

Clichés are often true and it is the case that a picture can be worth a thousand words.

September’s Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the total number of jobs in the U.S. economy rose by +263,000 last month. The gain in employment of a quarter of a million jobs was the weakest showing among all the months of this year so far, but it was still a pretty decent number. It’s not the sort of figure one would expect if the economy were becoming mired in a recession. That may still happen, but it isn’t necessarily here yet.

A strange thing is happening with the U.S. foreign trade balance. It’s improving significantly. It’s no longer as steeply in the hole as it was. And why this is so unusual is because it’s occurring while the value of the U.S. dollar is rising, making imports cheaper and more attractive and rendering exports more expensive and, therefore, a harder sell.