Economic Indicators
Construction Spending Increases in April
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Manufacturing spending fell this month, while highway spending increased.
Total construction spending rose 0.4% in April, when compared to March, according to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. On a yearly basis, spending was 0.9% higher than in April 2025.
Residential construction spending accounted for most of the increase, moving up 0.8% month-over-month, while spending in the non-residential sector rose just 0.1% in the same period. “Nonresidential construction spending inched higher in April, but that growth was entirely due to a sizable increase in public sector activity,” Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, said in a statement.
Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors, pointed to highway construction as a “major contributor” to current spending. “For the past several months, total spending has increased only when there was a rise in year over year highway construction activity,” Simonson said in a press release.
Public non-residential construction spending rose 0.4% since March, and 3.7% year-over-year, while private non-residential spending fell 0.2% for the month and 2.1% for the year. Manufacturing spending experienced the largest decline both monthly and yearly, at a rate of 1.2% and 18.4%, respectively.
“Private nonresidential construction spending fell for the seventh consecutive month and is down nearly 8% from December 2023’s all-time high,” said Basu. “While much of the segment’s recent weakness is attributable to the rapid decline in CHIPS Act-incentivized manufacturing megaprojects, private sector construction momentum has been difficult to find outside of the still-ascendant data center segment.”
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