Construction Economic News

When it comes to determining the interest rate that a company must pay to borrow capital, everything is relative. The interest rate that the safest, or least risky, borrowers are charged to borrow is often called the risk-free rate.

Among the real estate firms listed on the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index, earnings per share in Q4 2022 stood at $1.21, reflecting a significant decline of 46% and 49% compared to the levels recorded one quarter and one year ago, respectively. Certainly, 2022’s rising interest rate environment was a significant headwind as the sector is highly dependent on floating interest rates which during the past year rose at their fast rate in history.

The accompanying table records the top 10 project starts in the United States for April 2023.

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

Much Will Depend on Y/Y Comparison of Megaprojects ConstructConnect announced today that April 2023’s volume of construction starts, excluding residential work, was $47.0 billion, a decrease of -2.1% versus March 2023’s figure of $48.0 billion (originally reported as $47.6 billion).

Earlier this year ConstructConnect began publishing the Project Stress Index, a proprietary resource tracking the weekly level of projects failing to move towards expected completion.

On May 10, 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest Consumer Price Index data. The release’s broadest measure of prices, the All Items reading, marked its 10th consecutive month in which year-on-year inflation slowed.

Similar to what has been occurring in the United States, labor market conditions in Canada have remained robust despite significant hikes in interest rates orchestrated by the nation’s central bank. April’s nationwide total jobs count north of the border rose by +41,000 according to the latest Labour Force Survey conducted by Statistics Canada.

Earlier this year ConstructConnect began publishing the Project Stress Index, a proprietary resource that tracks the weekly level of projects failing to move towards expected completion. The strength of the Project Stress Index resides in its ability to monitor the weekly level of projects that have had their bid date delayed, have been put on hold, or have been abandoned.

Once again, there was no dramatically negative change in the U.S. labor market statistics contained in the latest monthly Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quite the opposite. In April, the total number of jobs in the economy rose by +253,000 and the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed extremely low, at 3.4%.