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Construction Economic News

Stay up to date on the latest construction economic news and get in-depth analysis and insights from Chief Economist Alex Carrick and Senior Economist Michael Guckes.

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Blog Feature

By: Alex Carrick, Chief Economist
August 4th, 2023

Try thinking like a central banker. Your main goal at the moment is to bring down inflation to around +2.0% year over year. Your primary weapon to achieve that end is high interest rates. They’ll slow consumer spending and housing starts but will also cause collateral damage in labor markets. Signs of kinks in job creation will be greeted with a smile.

Blog Feature

By: Michael Guckes, Senior Economist
August 3rd, 2023

Challenging economic conditions in China will have ramifications for U.S. prices, and certainly within the construction industry. In its latest GDP data release, China’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 6.3%, marking one of the slowest pre-COVID-19 growth readings since at least the 1990s.

Blog Feature

By: Alex Carrick, Chief Economist
August 1st, 2023

As my colleague, Michael Guckes is wont to say, every economic cycle is different. The study of ‘the dismal science’ (as economics has sometimes been labeled) in school lecture halls pretends otherwise.

Blog Feature

By: Michael Guckes, Senior Economist
July 27th, 2023

On July 26, the Federal Reserve increased the benchmark Fed Funds Rate (FFR) to 5.25%, marking the 11th consecutive time that the Fed has raised rates since early 2022. Never in history has the Fed raised the FFR this aggressively. As the Fed increases the FFR, it indirectly raises the cost of borrowing for public and private borrowers. This benchmark, which influences the rate of all other U.S. debt products, is presently at its highest level in more than 22 years.

Blog Feature

By: Michael Guckes, Senior Economist
July 21st, 2023

The Construction Economics Brief, produced by ConstructConnect’s economics team, is a monthly video series whose aim is to provide the latest and most pertinent economic information to construction industry leaders in a concise video format.

Blog Feature

By: Alex Carrick, Chief Economist
July 17th, 2023

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

Blog Feature

By: Alex Carrick, Chief Economist
July 17th, 2023

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

Blog Feature

By: Alex Carrick, Chief Economist
July 17th, 2023

A New Milestone for Megas ConstructConnect announced today that June 2023’s volume of construction starts, excluding residential work, was $63.2 billion, an increase of +25.5% versus May 2023’s figure of $50.3 billion (originally reported as $49.2 billion).

Blog Feature

By: Michael Guckes, Senior Economist
July 14th, 2023

U.S. consumer prices increased by 3.0% in the year period ending June 30, 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This marked the slowest recorded rate of inflation in over two years. At that time, prices were only just beginning their historic rise caused by a combination of surging demand, crippled supply chains, and hampered production.

Blog Feature

By: Michael Guckes, Senior Economist
July 11th, 2023

ConstructConnect’s Expansion Index data through the end of June 2023 reported accelerating contemplated spending growth in the U.S. and Canada at the rate of 16% and 5%, respectively. Rising contemplated spending in the provinces of Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Ontario offset contracting results in Newfoundland and Quebec. Canada’s overall reading was slowed by a substantially lower reading for Quebec from the month prior.

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