Construction industry leaders remained optimistic in September, according to Associated Builders and Contractors.
Two of the three components of ABC’s Construction Confidence Index rose for the month, and all three were above the diffusion index threshold of 50.
In September, ABC’s Construction Confidence Index increased from 51.9 to 52.3 for profit margin expectations and from 59.9 to 60.3 for staffing levels. The index fell from 60.4 to 59.6 for sales expectations.
Additionally, ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator was unchanged at 8.5 months in September and decreased 0.1 months from September 2024.
“Falling industrywide employment, a dearth of job openings and ongoing decreases in construction spending have not diminished ABC contractor member backlog or confidence,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “This stability primarily stems from two sources. First, public sector activity has held up far better than its private counterpart, and that is supporting elevated backlog in the infrastructure category.
“The second source of industry momentum is, unsurprisingly, data centers,” Basu continued. “Approximately 1 in 5 contractors was under contract to work on a data center project in September. While that’s a slightly lower share than in August, contractors that have data center work had significantly higher backlog (12.0 months) than those who did not (8.0 months).”
