Posts Tagged ‘market’
Friday, January 5th, 2018
Article source: ConstructConnect
U.S. net total jobs creation in the final month of last year was a tepid +148,000, according to the latest Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The ‘weakish’ December result caused the monthly average throughout all 2017 to pull back slightly to +171,000
 Just the same, +171,000 as a monthly average in 2017 signifies a more than satisfactory performance, although it was down from 2016’s comparable figure of +187,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate in December remained the same as in November, at an exceptionally tight 4.1%.
The seasonally adjusted (SA) number of U.S. construction jobs recorded a nice gain in December of +30,000. Such a substantial increase in employment for on-site workers was the biggest leap since February 2017’s +54,000.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, build, ConstructConnect, Construction industry, Construction services, Economy, market, money, US
Comments Off on U.S. December Jobs Creation ‘Weakish’, but Construction Compensation Bullish
Tuesday, June 20th, 2017
Article source: ConstructConnect
ConstructConnect announced today that May construction starts, excluding residential activity, were +5% versus April. The modest rise fell a little short of the usual percentage change between April and May, due to seasonality, of +8%.
Versus May of last year, nonresidential starts in the fifth month of this year were +2.0%.
Compared with January through May of last year, the year-to-date volume of starts in 2017 has been +1.9%.
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.
‘Nonresidential building’ plus ‘engineering/civil’ work accounts for a considerably larger share of total construction than residential activity. The former’s combined proportion of total put-in-place construction in the Census Bureau’s April report was 56%; the latter’s was 44%.
ConstructConnect’s construction starts are leading indicators for the Census Bureau’s capital investment or put-in-place series. Also, the reporting period for starts (i.e., May 2017) is one month ahead of the reporting period for the investment series (i.e., April 2017.)
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, build, Connect, construct, Economic, Economist, home, house, job, market
Comments Off on ConstructConnect’s YTD Starts +2% after May’s Rise of +5%
Tuesday, June 13th, 2017
Article source: ConstructConnect
Clichés are often true and it is the case that a picture can be worth a thousand words.
Below are six graphs recording 12-month moving averages of ConstructConnect ’s nonresidential construction starts.
When the value of the current month is higher than for the same month a year ago, the line will turn up; when lower, it will dip.
String a couple of similar positive or negative directional changes together over several months and one has a trend.
And that’s what the graphs are designed to do, show improving or deteriorating trends in a dozen major and more granular categories of construction work. (more…)
Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, build, ConstructConnect, Contruct, Economic, Economist, house, job, market
Comments Off on Nonresidential Construction Starts Trend Graphs – May 2017
Monday, March 13th, 2017
Article source: ConstructConnect
Further big improvements in America’s labor market statistics at the beginning of this year – with net new jobs creation climbing by almost half a million (+473,000) and the unemployment rate falling to a tight 4.7% − have convinced many analysts that the Federal Reserve will be acting quite aggressively in 2017 to hike interest rates. Where before there was an expectation that the federal funds rate would be lifted two or three times through December, by 25 basis points on each occasion (with 100 basis points equaling 1.00%), the consensus now is for an upward adjustment more frequently, either three or four times.
The Fed is probably hoping to attain, in easy-to-absorb stages over this year and next, a key policy-setting rate close to 3.00%. Nor are stock markets viewing such a prospect with anything like the same amount of dread as in the not so distant past. Share prices have been on a roll that has taken them to all-time highs.
Canada’s most recent employment report had a bottom line figure that wasn’t particularly outstanding (i.e., net new jobs of +15,000 in February), but included in the detail was an impressive increase in full-time staffing (+105,000), with most of the gain (+84,000) coming among what are termed ‘core-aged’ women (i.e., females 25-to-54 years of age).
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, bank, build, Canada, construct, ConstructConnect, Construction, Economic, employment, home, house, job, market, PMI, US
Comments Off on A Dozen Mid-March Economic Nuggets
Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
Article source: ConstructConnect
ConstructConnect announced today that January’s level of U.S. construction starts, excluding residential activity, was $24.6 billion, a decrease of 9.1% versus the dollar volume in the period before. The month-to-month drop was almost an exact match for the usual December-to-January decline of -8.5%. Due to harsh winter weather – which is another way of saying ‘seasonality’ – January is traditionally the worst month of the year for construction groundbreakings or starts.
Starts in January 2017 versus their level in January 2016 were also down, -11.6%. January 2017 compared with average January starts over the five years, 2012 to 2016, was +6.0%.
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.
‘Nonresidential building’ plus ‘engineering/civil’ work accounts for a considerably larger share of total construction than residential activity. The former’s combined proportion of total put-in-place construction in the Census Bureau’s December report was 61%; the latter’s was 39%.
ConstructConnect’s construction starts are leading indicators for the Census Bureau’s capital investment or put-in-place series. Also, the reporting period for starts (i.e., January 2017) is one month ahead of the reporting period for the investment series (i.e., December 2016.)
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, Building, ConstructConnect, Contruct, Economic, Housing, market
Comments Off on 9% Drop in ConstructConnect’s January Starts Matches Usual Seasonality
Thursday, July 21st, 2016
Article source: ConstructConnect
The accompanying tables rank seven major cities along America’s northern Atlantic coastline according to eight demographic and economic criteria. In the ‘overall’ listing that appears at the end of this article, Washington comes out best and Philadelphia worst. To reach those conclusions, however, it has been necessary to journey through the following data sets.
Population size: It’s no surprise that New York (20.2 million) is number one in terms of population size. Washington and Philadelphia (both with 6.1 million) are virtually tied for second. Across the U.S. as a whole, the population of Los Angeles (13.3 million) is not as big a step back from ‘The Big Apple’ as one might suppose.
Population change: With respect to population change, measured as the average annual growth rate over the latest two years for which statistics are available, Washington (+1.12%) is on top, followed by Richmond (+1.00%). New York (+0.47%) is in the middle and Philadelphia (+0.28%) and Providence (+0.25%) are barely making any headway at all.
Housing Starts: Residential building permits, as compiled by the Census Bureau and readily made available at the website of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), serve as the equivalent of new home starts for cities in the U.S. Through May of this year, New York (14,582 units) has been the leader in the number of residential building permits issued. Washington (10,937) has placed second. Providence hasn’t even exceeded 1,000-units.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, Atlantic, build, CMD, CMDGroup, Connect, ConstrucConnect, construct, Economist, employment, house, Housing, job, jobless, market, population, price, US
Comments Off on Washington Sets the Pace in Northern Atlantic Region
Monday, May 16th, 2016
Article source: ConstructConnect
ConstructConnect announced today that April’s level of U.S. construction starts, excluding residential work, was $30.1 billion, a further climb of +8.1% month to month on top of March’s leap of +14.0%. Since the usual or long-term average gains in March and April, due to seasonality, are +2.5% and +12.0%, the kick-off to 2016’s spring has been more than kind to the construction sector.
Comparing April of this year with what was an admittedly lackluster same fourth month of last year, the change was an outsized +30.7%. That’s approaching one-third higher. The level of year-to-date starts in 2016 has been +14.5% versus the January to April time frame of 2015.
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.
‘Non-residential building’ plus ‘engineering/civil’ work accounts for a considerably larger share of total construction than residential activity. The former’s combined proportion of total put-in-place construction in the Census Bureau’s March report was 60%; the latter’s was 40%.
(more…)
Tags: Alex Carrick, build, Canada, CMDGroup, construct, ConstructConnect, Economy, house, market, residential, US
Comments Off on ConstructConnect’s Starts Continue Winning Trend in April
Wednesday, May 11th, 2016
Article source: CMDGroup
Note: The graphs (‘New Graphs’ and ‘Canada Graphs’ tabs in excel file) are integral to the article, but the text is actually standalone.
There’s a diversity of ways to assess the strength of an industry within the broader context of the overall economy. Stock market investors prefer to look at profit levels and price-earnings ratios. Financial institutions focus on debt and cash flow. Economists often choose jobs levels.
Whether or not employment is on the upswing can give a pretty good indication of which way firms in a particular sector are leaning in terms of investment spending or construction projects.
Previous Economy at a Glances have featured employment-level charts for key U.S. sub-sectors. Similar graphs have now been developed for Canada and they are featured in this EAAG.
The underlying data for the U.S. and Canada comes from surveys of employers. A significant point of difference, however, is that the U.S. numbers are seasonally adjusted. For Canada, they are moving 12-month averages of not seasonally adjusted (NSA) figures, placed in the latest month.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Canada, CMD, CMDGroup, Economy, hotel, job, market, transportation, US
Comments Off on 15 Eye-Catching Charts that Highlight Trends in Canada and U.S. Jobs (Part 1)
Tuesday, May 10th, 2016
Article source: CMDGroup
Standing on the periphery of today’s jobs reports from the U.S. and Canada, I feel more like a cop on the beat, when confronted by bystanders at a minor altercation, than an economist.
My gut reaction is to say, “Move along, please. Not much happening here.” But I don’t want to put you off from reading the rest of this article.
In both countries, the unemployment rates stayed the same, 5.0% for America’s economy and 7.1% for Canada’s.
Month-to-month job creation in the U.S. was a decent enough 160,000, but it was below the 200,000 benchmark that gets everyone at least a little excited.
The last time the month-to-month increase in employment was as low occurred in September of last year (149,000), although January of this year wasn’t that much better (168,000).
Our expectations may have become slightly overblown, after February and March figures of +233,000 and +208,000 respectively.
2016’s monthly average gain in jobs through April, at +192,000, has now dropped by 6.3% compared with the same first four months of 2015, at +205,000.
The latest month-to-month employment increase for the services sector (+174,000) was actually greater than for the economy as whole. Therefore, goods-production must have acted as a drag on payrolls and indeed that was the case. The workforce in ‘mining and logging’ was downsized by 8,000 positions.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, build US, Canada, CMD, CMDGroup, construct, employment, house, job, jobless, market, material
Comments Off on April Jobs Reports U.S. and Canada – “Move Along, Please. Not Much Happening Here”
Monday, May 9th, 2016
Article source: CMDGroup
Parts 1 and 2 of this Economy at a Glance carried us past the halfway point of our extended jaunt through the major changes underway in society today.
It’s time to wrap up with economy- and, indeed, life-altering transitions (8) through (12).
(8) Logistics rule: One could be forgiven for thinking that better logistics is the holy grail of aspirations.
The best strategizing generals have always known that wars aren’t necessarily won by valor or military skill.
Nor even by a single decisive victory.
To arrive at such a desirable outcome, the winning side must first have good logistics – i.e., effective means to supply warriors and machines with food and fuel. These are the secure supply lines that are so touted in military jargon.
Otherwise, you’ll find yourself retreating from Moscow, à la Napoleon Bonaparte, subsequent to a fades-too-quickly glorious success at the battle of Borodino.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Canada, CMD, CMDGroup, Construction, Genetic, job, market, oil, Sustainability, US
Comments Off on By No Means is it the Same Old World (Part 3)
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Just the same, +171,000 as a monthly average in 2017 signifies a more than satisfactory performance, although it was down from 2016’s comparable figure of +187,000.
