Article written by Andy Holtmann on the Viewpoint blog.

As we continue to adjust to new working and operating environments in construction during the COVID pandemic, many contractors are looking at what the future will hold and what the new construction reality might look like.

Article written by Matt Harris on the Viewpoint blog.

According to data released Friday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national construction industry added 42,000 net new jobs in February.

Key Takeaways

Article posted on the Viewpoint blog

Summary written by Andy Holtmann and appeared on the Viewpoint blog.

According to data released Friday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national construction industry added 44,000 net new jobs in January.

Key Takeaways

According to data released today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national construction industry added 20,000 net new jobs in December.

Key Takeaways

• The construction industry added 20,000 net new jobs in December 2019. On a year-over-year basis, industry employment has expanded by 151,000 jobs, an increase of 2.0%.
• The construction unemployment rate was 5.0% in December, down 0.1 percentage points from the same time last year.
• Nonresidential construction employment increased by 16,700 jobs on net in December and is up by 100,600 net jobs during the last 12 months.
• “Recent data indicate that nonresidential construction spending is no longer expanding rapidly, and this may be due in part to the fact that the industry is approaching its output ceiling due to a shortage of available workers.”

Article written by Steven H. Miller and appears on Constructor Magazine.com.

There is an old adage concerning timely action about the uselessness of locking the stable after the horse is gone. It is, unfortunately, the story of many construction companies confronting the issue of cybersecurity. They never considered themselves a target until it was too late.

Many are surprised by how fast the future has arrived, but it is here now. From payroll and tool-tracking to 3D building models and as-built laser scans, a construction company’s network is the conduit for increasing portions of its activities and is hosting an increasing number of outsiders and their devices. That is an attractive target for thieves, especially since the number of vulnerabilities in the network is growing. If the ‘stable’ in the old adage is your computer network with 250 doors instead of one and strangers going in and out, locking it up is not a simple task. To avoid becoming a victim, cybersecurity must be considered a top issue.

Press Release from Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4—Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu forecasts continued momentum for the construction sector next year but advised an overall “wait-and-see” approach based on leading and lagging indicators and economic uncertainties, according to a 2020 economic outlook published in Construction Executive magazine.

Although ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator—a leading indicator that reflects projects under contract yet to be executed—climbed to nine months in August 2019, construction spending and employment—lagging indicators—have started to soften. Yet, while spending in private nonresidential categories such as office and logging has decreased, public spending categories remain a bright spot.