COVID-19 Impacts 2020 Construction Forecasts

摘要

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the economy off its axis. What the future holds will depend on virus mitigation, treatment and the performance of an economy that will operate in fits and starts. The construction industry, like the rest of the United States, is holding its breath. In a Dodge Data & Analytics webinar, chief economist Richard Branch explained the firm's predictions for 2020. He expects brutal Q2 numbers. To predict construction activity for the remainder of the year and beyond, Dodge based its latest updated forecast on the following assumptions: 3-8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States (minus asymptomatic cases); new infections peaking in May and infection reduction by July; a fatality rate of 1.5%; and a hospitalization rate of 10%.