The drop in industry unemployment, unaccompanied
by a rise in construction employment, suggests workers are finding jobs in
other industries, retiring, returning to school or training, or leaving the
workforce. That may make hiring more difficult when construction demand picks
up.
The
U.S. Senate Nov. 10 unanimously approved legislation to repeal a federal
mandate that government agencies withhold part of their payments to contractors and added
an amendment to provide tax credits to companies that hire veterans.
However, overall U.S. construction starts for next
year will remain essentially flat, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2012 Dodge
Construction Outlook.
The producer price index for inputs to construction industries — a
weighted average of the price of all goods used in every type of construction,
plus items consumed by contractors, such as diesel fuel — was flat for September
but up 8.1 percent over the September 2010 level.
Demand for plumbing fixtures and fittings in the United States will rise 7.1% per
year to $10.9 billion in 2015, according to a new study by The Freedonia Group.
The pickup for total construction in August was
the result of greater activity for each of construction’s three main sectors — nonresidential
building [7 percent], residential building [4 percent] and nonbuilding
construction [13 percent]. For the first eight months of 2011, total
construction on an unadjusted basis was down 6 percent from the same period a
year ago.
"Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve districts indicated that economic
activity continued to expand at a modest pace, though some districts noted
mixed or weakening activity," the Fed reported.
Nationwide
housing starts edged down 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
604,000 units in July, while the June BuildFax Remodeling Index reported its highest remodeling numbers in 20 months.
