Construction industry leaders were slightly more optimistic in December 2025, according to Associated Builders and Contractors.
All three components of ABC’s Construction Confidence Index rose for the month but were down year over year.
In December 2025, ABC’s Construction Confidence Index increased from 51.1 to 51.8 for profit margin expectations; 58.2 to 60 for staffing levels; and 59.8 to 62.9 for sales expectations.
Additionally, ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator rose from 8.1 months in November 2025 to 8.2 months in December 2025 and was down 0.1 months compared with December 2024.
“Backlog fell sharply for smaller contractors during 2025,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “That decline was largely due to the fact that nonresidential construction momentum is confined to the data center segment, and those projects are far more beneficial for the largest contractors. In December, the 13% of ABC members under contract to work on a data center project had significantly higher backlog (11.0 months) than those who were not (7.8 months). While contractor confidence improved slightly for the month, it remains well below late-2024 and early-2025 levels.”
