Normally, making it through July is nothing to celebrate, but given the year we’ve had so far, I’m celebrating the little wins when I can. Many storefronts and restaurants have reopened at this point, and employees are returning to work; however, cases of COVID-19 continue to rise around the country. 

The good news is because people have been spending so much more time at home, they are choosing to replace HVAC systems and remodel kitchen and bathrooms. 

Jobber, a job tracking and customer management platform, recently released its Home Service Economic Report analyzing the performance of the contracting industry over the past few months and it painted a positive picture.

The contracting industry saw a steep decline in new work scheduled when stay-at-home orders went into effect, particularly in April, which saw a 23% decline in year-over-year growth, according to the report. Revenues were impacted in both April and May, and growth fell to -15% year-over-year, roughly 25% below where they were projected. However, per the report, new work being scheduled quickly turned around in May, and spiked in June to 14% year-over-year growth, a record high in 2020.

“It’s impressive to see the segment return to pre-COVID levels within two months,” the report stated. “As new work scheduled continues to improve, this segment is poised well entering Q3.”

I couldn’t agree more based on my conversations with plumbing and heating contractors. Take a look at Mechanical Inc. — our 2020 Mechanical Contractor of the year — for example. Mechanical President Brian Helm says the market is pretty strong, and so far, new projects have not been cancelled. “Other than being worried about it, we haven’t seen that come to fruition yet.”

Work has been plentiful and steady, leading Mechanical to hire project managers and upper level managers during the pandemic to ensure it had enough people to manage the current workload. For more about Mechancial, turn to Page 62.

It helps that this industry was deemed ‘essential,’ ensuring businesses could still operate and endure the global pandemic and economic downturn better than most. But with coronavirus cases still on the rise, we must all do our part to ensure states don’t re-enact stay-at-home orders so the economy can recover.