ConstructConnect Blog

It is no news that the global economy has been a bit shaky for years now, then the pandemic struck and everything went spiraling downward. Statistics show that unemployment was at 14.7% in April 2020, the highest rate in America since the Great Depression, and gross domestic product fell by 4.8%.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s top news and happenings in the construction industry. Each week, we’ll take a look at some of the interesting local, regional, and national stories about construction to keep you better informed of the goings-on in the industry.

The construction industry can be volatile and unpredictable at the best of times. With the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, construction work is taking a hard hit. Projects are getting delayed and even canceled as regions open and close to try to slow the virus's spread.

Canada’s Jobs ‘Claw-Back’ Ratio Now Exceeds 50% In July, the total number of jobs in Canada rose by 419,000, according to Statistics Canada, bringing the cumulative figure for the latest three months to +1.661 million. June’s number was +952,000 and May’s, +290,000.

A Faint Echo of Normalcy in Hospitality Sales? In the U.S., retail and food services sales are combined in a single monthly report from the Census Bureau. Also, the data is relatively current. Latest results are for June 2020.

In July, according to the Employment Situation report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the total number of jobs in the U.S. climbed by 1.8 million (after gains of 4.8 million in June and 2.7 million in May) and the seasonally adjusted (SA) unemployment rate eased to 10.2% (after readings of 11.1% in June, 13.0% in May, and 14.4% in April).

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s top news and happenings in the construction industry. Each week, we’ll take a look at some of the interesting local, regional, and national stories about construction to keep you better informed of the goings-on in the industry.

Social distancing may feel surreal in the beginning—coworkers avoiding physical contact, people separated by partitions, everyone wearing masks. It might even seem a little lonely with a lot of our coworkers still forced to work at home as organizations ramp up operations, allowing people to return to work in phases. Nonetheless, over time, we'll get used to a new "normal" as novel ways of working emerge.

Average annual U.S. ‘real’ (i.e., after accounting for inflation) gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the latest 20 years (2000 to 2019 inclusive) has been +2.1%; and for the past 10 years, +2.3%. The latest 10-year (2010 to 2019) annual average isn’t biased downwards by the 2008-2009 recession.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s top news and happenings in the construction industry. Each week, we’ll take a look at some of the interesting local, regional, and national stories about construction to keep you better informed of the goings-on in the industry.