Steel Markets
January 3, 2020
Construction Spending Rises in November
Written by Sandy Williams
Construction spending improved in November, boosting optimism among contractors regarding new projects for 2020. Construction spending rose 4.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.324 trillion from November 2018 to November 2019, while industry employment grew in 63 percent or 226 out of 358 metro areas, according to a new analysis of federal data released by the Associated General Contractors of America. Year-over-year increases were seen in all major segments—public, private residential and private nonresidential.
“Both the actual spending totals for November and our members’ expectations for 2020 point to a continuing uptick in construction employment,” said AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson. “It’s likely that even more metros would have added workers recently if unemployment weren’t at record lows in many areas.”
