Posts Tagged ‘Growth’
Friday, July 13th, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
ConstructConnect announced today that June’s volume of construction starts, excluding residential activity, was $39.8 billion – a month-to-month change of -24.7%. The one-quarter drop was not due to market conditions. Rather, the comparison of June versus May suffered from the latter including Foxconn Technology’s $10 billion industrial plant in Wisconsin. June relative to May exclusive of that single mega project was still down, but by only -7.2%. The historical May-to-June change, aided by favorable ‘seasonality’, has been +4.5%.
June 2018 versus the same month of last year was -6.3%. June 2018 versus the five-year average for June, from 2013 through 2017, was +3.2%.
Year-to-date starts in 2018, compared with first half (H1) 2017 starts, have been -5.5%.
The starts figures throughout this report are not seasonally adjusted (NSA). Nor are they altered for inflation. They are expressed in what are termed ‘current’ as opposed to ‘constant’ dollars.
View this information as an infographic.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, Construction, Construction services, Economic, Economist, Economy, employment, Growth, Housing, market
Comments Off on July 2018 issue based on June starts statistics. 1st half 2018 results.
Friday, July 6th, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
June’s Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records a pickup in total jobs of +213,000 in the latest month.
But that +213,000 compares June’s level of total jobs with a revised figure for May. May’s figure is now being estimated higher by +37,000 vis à vis what was reported for May a month ago.
Therefore, June’s level of total U.S. jobs is now +250,000 (i.e., the sum of 213,000 and 37,000) versus what was reported by the BLS a month ago. That’s an increase in total employment of a quarter of a million jobs.
The gain in U.S. total employment through the first half of this year has been 1.3 million jobs. In H1 of last year, the increase was 1.1 million.
The monthly average climb so far in 2018 has been +215,000. Through the first six months of 2017, the monthly average increment was also good, but it was a somewhat lower +184,000.
Expressed another way, the monthly average jobs jump in first-half of 2018 has been +17% compared with the first-half of 2017.
The unemployment rate in June fell back slightly to 4.0% from 3.8% in May. The retreat was because the continuation of strong employment prospects has caused a month-to-month uptick in the participation rate, to 62.9% from 62.7%.
Among industrial sub-sectors, the three standouts for jobs improvement in June were: ‘education and health services’, +54,000; ‘professional and business services’, +50,000; and in a long-time-coming and pleasantly-welcome development, ‘manufacturing’, +36,000.
The leap in manufacturing employment was almost all within the durable goods realm, +32,000.
And within durable goods, hiring was most intense in ‘motor vehicles and parts’, +12,000; ‘fabricated metal products’, +7,000; and ‘computer and electronic products’, +5,000.
The +54,000 jog upwards in ‘educational and health services’ employment was comprised of ‘educational services’, +19,000; ‘health care’, +25,000; and ‘social assistance’, +10,000.
Staffing in ‘professional and business services’ (+50,000) received boosts from ‘temporary help services’, +9,000; ‘architectural and engineering services’, +7,000; and ‘computer systems design and related design’, +6,000.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, Construction industry, Economic, Economics, Economist, Economy, employ, employment, Growth, job, jobless, jobs, money
Comments Off on U.S. June Total Jobs Higher by One-quarter Million Versus Previously Reported May
Friday, May 25th, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
Tables 1 and 2 accompanying this article set out the latest (March 2018) year-over-year jobs growth and unemployment rate rankings for the 51 largest (by population) U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The raw data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The objective for any city is that its jobs growth be faster rather than slower and that its unemployment rate be lower rather than higher. The total U.S. pace of employment gain has most recently been +1.5% year over year, while the national jobless rate has dropped to 3.9%.
The three U.S. cities with the best combined results from Tables 1 and 2 are: Austin, TX; San Jose, CA; and Orlando, FL. In March of this year, Austin was first for jobs growth (+3.6%) and tied for sixth with respect to unemployment rate (3.1%). Orlando was second for jobs growth (+3.5%) and tied for ninth with respect to unemployment rate (3.3%). San Jose was ninth for jobs growth (+2.7%), but tied for first with respect to unemployment rate (2.7%).
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Austin, ConstructConnect, Economic, Economist, Economy, employ, employment, Growth, interest rate, job, jobs, Labor, orlando, san jose, US
Comments Off on Austin, San Jose and Orlando Lead U.S. Large City Labor Markets
Tuesday, May 15th, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
ConstructConnect announced today that April’s volume of construction starts, excluding residential activity, was $42.5 billion. The latest month-to-month change was +14.3%. Moving from March to April usually accounts for the biggest gain due to seasonality. The long-term average increase in starts between the third and fourth months of the year has been +12.0%.
April of this year versus the same month of last year was -5.0%. April of this year versus the five-year average for April, from 2013 through 2017, however, was a much better +28.8%.
April 2018’s year-to-date performance was -15%. Still, that was an improvement over March’s first-reported pull-back of -22%. The year-to-date percentage changes early in 2018 are being held down by Q1 2017’s exceptional strength in starts. This effect will gradually dissipate.
The starts figures throughout this report are not seasonally adjusted (NSA). Nor are they altered for inflation. They are expressed in what are termed ‘current’ as opposed to ‘constant’ dollars.
View this information as an infographic.
(more…)
Tags: AEC, Alex Carrick, architect, construct, ConstructConnect, Construction, Construction services, Growth, market, oil, real estate, residential
Comments Off on ConstructConnect’s April Starts +14%, A Bit Better than Usual Seasonal Uptick
Friday, May 4th, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
April’s Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) highlights a month-to-month increase in total U.S. jobs of +164,000. But that figure understates the employment improvement, since March’s level was revised upwards by +30,000.
Therefore, the accumulated gain in April was +194,000 jobs.
The average monthly increase in total U.S. employment through the first one-third of this year has been +200,000. In 2017, during the same January-to-April time frame, the average monthly climb was +117,000. The year-over-year increase in the monthly average is +13.0%.
The number that really pops out from the latest data release on the U.S. labor market, however, is the unemployment rate. Prior to April, it had been sitting at 4.1% for six months in a row.
In April, it finally dropped below 4.0% to stand at 3.9%. A 3.9% jobless figure is the lowest since December 2000, almost two decades ago.
Furthermore, there is another measure of the unemployment rate calculated by the BLS that is broader in scope and habitually higher. Its official title is U-6 and it includes individuals only marginally attached to the labor force, plus those who are engaged part-time but would prefer to be occupied full-time.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, Connect, ConstructConnect, Construction, Construction industry, Construction services, Economic, Economist, employment, Growth, job, jobs, market, money, US
Comments Off on An Eye-Popping 3.9% Unemployment Rate in April’s U.S. Jobs Report
Tuesday, March 27th, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
The historical records of Canada’s put-in-place capital spending numbers for residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and engineering construction are to be found in Statistics Canada’s on-line Cansim Tables 026-0013, 026-0016 and 029-0045.
Whereas construction ‘starts’ numbers are lump-sum figures entered at the time of groundbreaking, the ‘put-in-place’ data series are meant to mirror progress payments as projects proceed.
The history i n those previously mentioned Cansim Tables, however, currently stops at 2017. But there is another source for 2018 estimates – the non-residential Capital and Repair Expenditures (CARE) survey.
There’s a problem, though. The 2018 data from CARE is set out according to capital spending by industrial sectors. These is no re-arrangement of those amounts according to the five type-of-structure categories.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, Canada, construct, ConstructConnect, Construction industry, Economic, Economics, election, Growth, market, US
Comments Off on Spring 2018 Put-in-place Construction Forecasts for Canada
Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
After a stretch of several months earlier in the second half of 2017, when many of the Census Bureau’s sub-category put-in-place (PIP) construction spending numbers stalled, some sprightlier results were recorded once again in November.
 Given that 11 of last year’s 12 months have now been measured, the 2017 over 2016 year-end percentage-change for total construction will almost certainly be close to +5.0%. All the increase will have originated in the residential sector, +11.0%, with non-residential remaining flat.
It’s important to note, however, (i.e., from accompanying Table 1) that with respect to latest three-month results, non-residential work has been staging a comeback. For latest 3-months over previous 3-months (annualized), ‘total’, residential and non-residential are almost the same, only slightly below +9.0%
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Tags: alexcarrick, ConstructConnect, Construction industry, Economics, Economy, Growth, US
Comments Off on U.S. Put-in-place Construction Spending Sprightlier in November
Monday, November 6th, 2017
Article source: ConstructConnect
Chart 1 of this article sets out, for each of Canada’s provinces, the most recent year-over-year growth rates for seven demographic and economic variables – population, housing starts, total jobs, hourly earnings, weekly earnings, retail sales and export sales.
An eighth measure is also included, the unemployment rate, but it is a ‘level’ rather than a growth rate.
To compare how the provinces are doing relative to each other, Chart 2 rearranges the results from Chart 1 in a ‘heat’ graphic. The methodology is as follows.
In each column of Chart 1, when the percent change number is equal to or higher than the Canada-wide figure, the relevant ‘cell’ is highlighted in yellow (for ‘warm’).
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, build, Canada, construct, ConstructConnect, Economist, Economy, employ, Growth, job, provinces
Comments Off on Ranking the Economic Performance of Canada’s Provinces – Heat Graph
Tuesday, April 5th, 2016
Article source: CMDGroup
North America’s major stock market indices have taken investors on a ‘theme park’ ride over the past 12 months − as can be seen from Graph 1. More often than not, it hasn’t been much fun.
There were substantial dips for all four indices – Dow Jones Industrials (DJI), the S&P 500, NASDAQ and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) − in September of last year, followed by recovery for the U.S. series, and then another crater in the January-February period of this year.
Canada’s TSX stayed mainly down once it faltered in the fall of last year.
In the most recent month, however, there were notable improvements once again. At the close of trading in March 2016, the DJI, S&P 500 and NASDAQ were all within 1.0% of their levels achieved a year prior.
The TSX moved +4.9% during the month of March, but was still -9.4% year over year.
Worry has centered on the likely performance of corporate profits. It’s well known that in the energy sector, the low price of oil is taking a heavy toll on the revenues of exploration and extraction companies, as well as their service and material suppliers.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Canada, CMD, CMDGroup, Corporate Profit, Dow Jones, Economy, energy, Energy Sector, Growth, job, Profit, stock, US
Comments Off on U.S. Corporate Profit Growth Stymied by Energy Sector Slide
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