May 2021 P.I.P Construction Spending – Census Bureau

Since May 2020 we have seen construction spending increase by 7.5%. Total residential spending has increased by 28.2% while non-residential spending has decreased by -7.1% The largest declines are in public safety spending which we understand to be due to easing covid restrictions. We continue to see large decreases in lodging while offices, commercial buildings, and manufacturing spending continues to struggle. We expect that as the total vaccination rate increases that these sectors will have healthy growth. 

The largest increases from April have been spending on water supply, 2.1%, while conservation & development has increased by 1.5% and highway spending has risen by 1.4%.We see a large increase in spending in the private transportation sector of 5.5%. Largey we believe these increases in spending are due to rising material costs and not additional work volume.