Construction industry leaders’ confidence continued to rise in February after increasing in January, according to www.abc.org.
All three components increased in February, and they were above the diffusion index threshold of 50.
In February, the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Construction Confidence Index increased from 58.4 to 64.8 for sales expectations; 58.1 to 61.4 for staffing levels; and 47.5 to 51.2 for profit margin expectations.
“The expectation that rapid economic recovery could begin later this year has now swept through the nonresidential construction sector, which is surprising, as I anticipated this segment would be less upbeat,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “After all, commercial real estate fundamentals have been compromised by behavioral and policy shifts motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Public finances have also been affected negatively, which could diminish demand for construction services going forward. Rapidly rising materials prices are also creating concern, as they would have a tendency to further squeeze industry profit margins.
“Despite these factors, contractors now expect sales, staffing levels and profit margins to expand over the next six months,” Basu continued. “The way to reconcile downbeat macroeconomic considerations with growing contractor confidence is to analyze backlog. Backlog has been edging higher for several months and rose sharply last month as projects that had been mothballed are coming back to life. Based on survey responses completed in February, projects are reinitiating more rapidly than previously anticipated, driving up both backlog and contractor sentiment. Respondents also appear to view additional federal stimulus as another reason to be optimistic about the near-term.”
