It has been six months since the COVID-19 pandemic began to make itself felt across the U.S., and industry firms now are beginning to believe that the resulting market downturn will not begin to recover for another year. Further, industry executives believe that some market sectors will be a long time in returning to prosperity.
The concern about the emergence of COVID-19 can be seen in the results of ENR’s latest Construction Industry Confidence Index survey. The index, which had plunged 20 points to a 36 rating in the second quarter of 2020, only gained two points to a 38 rating in the third quarter. The current CICI ratings are comparable to 2010, when the industry was struggling to recover from the financial meltdown of 2008.