The market for professional services in the construction industry has taken a beating, just like every other aspect of the depressed industry. However, unlike contracting, design and project delivery, the need for professional services from such firms is not always tied directly to specific projects but can range from project and program development to staff augmentation and dispute resolution. Thus, the downturn in projects does not directly correlate to a downturn in the need for services.
This demand can be seen in the numbers from this year’s ENR Top 100 CM-for-Fee Firms survey results. The Top 100 generated a surprising $16.03 billion in fees in 2009 for construction management and program management services, up 15.3% from $13.90 billion in 2008. However, most of this growth came from the large engineering-construction firms that manage huge federal, industrial or power programs. For other types of firms, fee levels were essentially flat or down.