The term “black swan” is used to indicate a sudden, unexpected event that usually has broad negative effects on the economy and society. Executives in the construction industry now are looking carefully at whether the sudden emergence of the new coronavirus may be the black swan that will bring a halt to the market's long boom.
The concern about the emergence of COVID-19, as the disease caused by the virus is known, has had surprisingly little impact on industry executives’ views of the construction market in the near term, at least as seen in the latest results of ENR’s latest Construction Industry Confidence Index survey.