Recent Updates
- US: Wholesale Trade (Feb), Producer Prices (Mar)
- US: Producer Price Indexes by Commodity Detail (Mar)
- US: Producer Price Indexes by Industry Detail (Mar)
- Canada: Investment in Building Construction (Feb), Labor Force Survey (Mar)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Wholesale Inventories Post Strong February Gain; Sales Fall
Wholesale inventories increased 0.6% (2.0% y/y) during February...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Unexpectedly Increase
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 744,000 during the week ended April 3...
Total PMIs Gain Traction in March
The PMI readings for March show improvement again...
U.S. Consumer Credit Outstanding Bounces Back in February
Consumer credit outstanding surged $27.6 billion during February...
U.S. Trade Deficit Widens to Record during February
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $71.1 during February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller April 1, 2019
The value of construction put-in-place increased 1.0% (1.1% y/y) during February following a 2.5% January increase, revised from 1.3%. A 0.1% easing had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.
The value of public construction jumped 3.6% (11.5% y/y), after an outsized 5.7% rise in January. It was powered by a 9.5% surge (22.8% y/y) in highway & street construction, which accounts for roughly one-third of public sector spending. Public safety construction rose 3.1% (4.6% y/y), but health care building declined 7.0% (-5.3% y/y). Educational facility construction was little-changed (5.5% y/y). Water supply construction gained 5.2% (11.4% y/y).
The value of private construction activity rose 0.2% (-1.9% y/y). Residential building rose 0.7% (-3.4% y/y) but single-family construction dropped 1.1% (-7.1% y/y). Multi-family construction eased 0.4% (+7.5% y/y) after five months of strong increase. The value of improvements strengthened 3.6% (-1.5% y/y). Nonresidential building activity weakened 0.5% (+0.1% y/y) after two months of improvement. Office construction slipped 0.4% (4.8% y/y) and commercial construction weakened 0.8% (-6.6% y/y). Factory sector building rose 0.9% (3.4% y/y).
The construction spending figures, some of which date back to 1946, are in Haver's USECON database. The expectations reading can be found in the AS1REPNA database.
Construction Put in Place (SA, %) | Feb | Jan | Dec | Feb Y/Y | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 1.0 | 2.5 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 3.8 | 4.5 | 7.0 |
Private | 0.2 | 1.5 | 0.8 | -1.9 | 3.1 | 7.1 | 9.2 |
Residential | 0.7 | 1.8 | 0.9 | -3.4 | 2.8 | 12.4 | 10.7 |
Nonresidential | -0.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 7.7 |
Public | 3.6 | 5.7 | -1.6 | 11.5 | 6.4 | -3.2 | 0.7 |