According to an ABC member survey performed between November 20 and December 8, the Construction Backlog Indicator declined to 8.1 months in November.
The reading is down 0.3 months from October 2025 and November 2024.
Check out ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator and Construction Confidence Index tables for November.
View the whole Construction Backlog Indicator and Construction Confidence Index data set.
Except for contractors with annual revenues of more than $100 million, the backlog is decreasing on a monthly and annual basis.
The ABC Construction Confidence Index reading for sales improved in November, while the figures for profit margins and personnel levels fell.
All three components’ ratings stay over 50, indicating that they will rise during the following six months.
“Backlog declined sharply in November and is now at the lowest level since February 2024,” stated ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu.
“The fall was particularly sharp for the smallest contractors; ABC members with less than $30 million in yearly revenue had its lowest backlog reading in over four years. Notably, fewer than 6% of the smallest contractors are contracted to work on data center projects, compared to 37% for contractors with annual revenues more than $100 million.
“Despite the decline in backlog, contractors remain broadly optimistic that their sales and staffing levels will expand over the next six months,” says Basu.
“At the same time, only 33.6% of contractors expect their profit margins to grow over the next two quarters, the lowest percentage in over a year. That most likely reflects increased concern about material costs, which have begun to rise after several quarters of relative stability.”