“Private nonresidential construction eked out a small gain in July,” said Kenneth D. Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the nation’s leading construction trade association. “I expect private nonresidential construction to outperform last year’s disastrous double-digit declines but I suspect the industry is still a few quarters away from full recovery.
“New data today from the Census Bureau shows that the overall value of construction put in place edged up 0.2% in July from an upwardly revised June total to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $880 billion, just short of the all-time high of $883 billion set last January,” Simonson pointed out.