Chicago Construction News staff writer
The construction industry’s backlog held steady in September, according to the latest survey from Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). The Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) remained at 8.5 months, virtually unchanged from the same time last year, reflecting resilience in a challenging market.
The ABC survey, conducted Sept. 22 to Oct. 6 among contractor members, shows that backlog has declined in commercial and institutional as well as heavy industrial sectors over the past year, while infrastructure projects have seen substantial growth.
ABC’s Construction Confidence Index (CCI) showed mixed results: the sales component declined, but profit margin and staffing expectations rose. All three readings remain above the threshold of 50, indicating that contractors expect overall growth in the next six months.
“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 added. “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 with data center work had significantly higher backlog — 12.0 months — than those who did not, who reported 8.0 months.”
The report underscores the continuing importance of public infrastructure projects and data center construction in supporting the construction industry, even amid softer private-sector spending and moderate declines in employment.
ABC notes that the CBI and CCI provide complementary insights: the CBI measures the previous month’s work under contract, while the CCI tracks contractors’ outlook for the next six months. Both series were updated in May 2020 to better reflect survey periods and financial data.
For detailed data and methodology, ABC provides full CBI and CCI data series on its website.
