In May, public projects garnered increased dollars while private jobs struggled to find funding, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
Overall, national nonresidential spending was flat in May, ticking down 0.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of $1.21 trillion. But private nonresidential spending fell further, by 0.3 percent, as public projects gained 0.4 percent. That momentum on the public side kept the broader nonresidential sector up for the year with a 6.2 percent gain.
“Nonresidential construction spending has fallen for two consecutive months yet remains just 0.2 percent below the all-time high achieved in March 2024,” says ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu in a news release. “Much of that progress is attributable to ongoing infrastructure investments, which spurred a sizable 0.4 percent increase in publicly funded nonresidential spending in May.”
Source: www.constructiondive.com