According to an ABC member survey conducted between September 22 and October 6, the Construction Backlog Indicator stayed steady at 8.5 months in September.
The reading has decreased by 0.1 months since September 2024.
Backlog has decreased in the commercial, institutional, and heavy industrial sectors during the last year, while it has climbed significantly in the infrastructure sector.
ABC’s Construction Confidence Index reading for sales fell in September, although profit margins and staffing both rose.
All three components’ ratings stay over 50, indicating that they will rise during the following six months.
“Falling industrywide employment, a dearth of job openings and ongoing decreases in construction spending have not diminished ABC contractor member backlog or confidence,” Anirban Basu, ABC’s chief economist, stated.
“This stability is mostly derived from two sources. First, public sector activity has outperformed private sector activity, resulting in an elevated backlog in the infrastructure category.
“The second source of industry momentum is, unsurprisingly, data centers,” according to Basu.
“In September, approximately one in every five contractors had a contract to work on a data center project. While this is a somewhat smaller share than in August, contractors with data center work had a much bigger backlog (12.0 months) than those without (8.0 months).
The reference months for the Construction Backlog Indicator and Construction Confidence Index data series were updated on May 12, 2020, to better represent the survey period.
CBI evaluates the previous month’s work under contract using the most recent financial data available, whereas CCI assesses contractors’ expectations for the next six months.
Review the approach for both indicators.