• Private nonresidential building activity declines sharply.

• Residential building improves slightly.

• Public sector construction continues to ease.

The value of construction put-in-place weakened 0.3% (+7.5% y/y) during May after edging 0.1% higher in April, revised from 0.2%. A 0.5% May increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Figures back through 2019 were revised.

Private construction slipped 0.3% (+13.2% y/y) in May and reversed a 0.3% April gain. Residential construction improved 0.2% (28.7% y/y) as single-family building rose 0.8% (46.1% y/y) for the second straight month. Multi-family building eased slightly (+25.6% y/y) after two months of strong increase. Home improvement expenditures fell 0.6% (+8.9% y/y) after holding steady in April.

Nonresidential construction declined 1.1% in May (-5.8% y/y) after falling 0.5% during April. Transportation building strengthened 5.5% (-4.0% y/y) and reversed the 4.0% April falloff. Offsetting this increase, lodging construction fell 3.0% (-23.2% y/y) and education construction declined 3.0% (-19.9% y/y). Commercial building eased 0.7% (-2.6% y/y) while office building held steady (-8.3% y/y).

The value of public construction fell 0.2% during May (-8.7% y/y). It was the fifth consecutive monthly decline. Spending on highways & streets, which makes up nearly one-third of public spending, improved 1.4% (-4.3% y/y) and outlays on health care units eased 0.4% (+1.3% y/y). Power construction rose 0.5% (5.6% y/y).

The construction spending figures, some of which date back to 1946 can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations reading is in the AS1REPNA database.