A Weak January Kicks Off 2011

摘要

After declining 10.2% last year, the dollar value of total new construction put-in-place continued to weaken during the first month of 2011. On a seasonally adjusted annual basis, total construction in January was running 5.9% below the opening month of 2010, according to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. This was the second consecutive month that the seasonally adjusted date posted steep declines (see chart). Actual new construction in January was $53.83 billion, which was down 11.5% from last December and 5.7% down from January 2010, according to Commerce estimates. Of the 14 major markets reported by Commerce, 10 showed double-digit declines for the month and only one market showed a monthly gain, which was a modest 2.8% for transportation work. On a year-to-date basis, 12 of the 14 markets fell below January 2010's level, with increases only for power, at 0.9%, and transportation, at 22.6%. The largest year-to-year declines were 47.4% for hotel and motel work, 26.3% for manufacturing construction, 24.0% for the office-building market, 19.5% for commercial buildings and 16.9% for school buildings.