Every two weeks, Oldcastle Building Solutions Business Intelligence prepares a report focused on understanding and analyzing construction market data and trends.
This in-depth report is developed primarily for internal distribution, but Oldcastle Building Solutions exists to inform construction professionals like you, so we're making this report available for anyone who's interested in reading it.
What's New In This Report?
Highlights
The ENR Construction Industry Confidence Index (CICI) fell 6 points to 66 in Q3 2017. While most executives are confident in the growth outlook through 2018, the sentiment for growth beyond that time is waning.
The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) contracted 8.4% in September 2017 to 116.4; the commercial and institutional building components also dropped by 6.1% and 11.5%, respectively.
Construction Update
Construction Put-in-Place was $1.22T in August 2017, 2.5% above year ago activity.
The Engineering & Construction Cost Index (ECCI) in September 2017 reached a score of 58.4, indicating that construction costs continue to rise. The expectation for higher prices in 6 months is also growing.
Economic Update
In September 2017, the unemployment rate declined to 4.2% after contracting by 33K jobs, reflecting the impact of August's hurricane activity. The Construction industry added 8K jobs in the month, after adding 28K in August 2017.
36 of 51 states showed year-over-year construction employment gains in August 2017; with the strongest gains in Rhode Island, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon and Louisiana.
