EleBlog

Above from McGraw-Hill Construction’s recent report on the $ value of construction starts in 2012 (which measure differs from the government’s “construction put-in-place” — construction spending — monthly numbers).

EleBlog take: The residential number is + 18%, good news, but maybe a Dead Cat Bounce. The nonresidential number is a bit of a mystery.

Having said that, it’s the Nonbuilding (heavy) Construction contract gain that’s impressive, and drives the 4% increase over the year-to-date number for 2011.

MHC’s verbiage might be important here:

Much of the lift in March came from work at a nuclear power facility in Georgia, and a similar lift was provided in April by work at a nuclear power facility in South Carolina.

Aside from the strength shown by electric utilities, April drew support from an improved amount of public works construction and a sizeable upturn for nonresidential building after a weak March.  Also contributing to April’s gain for total construction was a slight increase for residential building.

Why might that be important? If May and June do not produce the same kind of numerical gains in Utilities and Public Works, this gain might flatten out.

Recently, I posted an item about a Gilbane construction industry report. I don’t know if what I wrote was spectacular, but the fact that a construction customer produced a lot of pages and analysis on the industry’s direction and costs impressed me.

Lo and behold, in my in-box the other day was a Q2 report from Gilbane, Construction Economics, dated May 2012. It included this graphic:

EleBlog take: The methodology may not be perfect, but this is a fast, easy way to grab a handle on productivity in the construction industry. The news: It’s declined in 7 of the 10 years in the table, such that where $1 billion in construction created 6,268 jobs in 2002, it now creates 6,808 jobs in the construction industry.