Related Links: COST REPORT: View Complete Report with Data and Analysis Slim Margins and Uncertainty Making Inflation Dangerous Flat, One-Year Pacts Highlight Collective Bargaining in 2011 Workers' Comp Rates Start to Climb Construction Equipment Prices Inch Back Up Given that the construction industry is a trailing economic indicator, industry executives are keenly aware of the state of the American economy. With recent news full of gloom, from consistently high unemployment rates to gridlock in Washington over raising the debt ceiling, industry confidence in the economy has taken a nosedive, reducing optimism that the construction market will recover any time soon.This
There has been an economic coup d'etat, and no one seems to have noticed. After pundits gave tax cuts decades to prove their economic worth, those experts have been quick to declare Keynesian stimulus economics a failure after only a few years. Seemingly overnight, budget hawks seized the initiative and implemented an economic policy of austerity that slows down the recovery but does not address the high unemployment problem. Related Links: Hard Times Draw the Line For Bargaining Contractors Hold The Line on Pay How John Deere's New Hybrid Wheel Loaders Get Their Juice Creating Cash From Trash Floods Disrupt
While contractor staff salaries are static and salary increases have reached record-low levels, recruiters say hiring is improving modestly. Heavy industrial, highway and heavy civil construction are showing positive signs, with compensation requests from wind and solar, says Jeff Robinson, president of construction-compensation consultant Personnel Administration Services Inc., Saline, Mich. Related Links: View the Full ENR 2011 Second Quarter Cost Report Hard Times Draw the Line for Bargaining How John Deere's New Hybrid Wheel Loaders Get Their Juice Creating Cash from Trash Floods Disrupt Deliveries Fears About the Economyu Shake Industry A Deep and Dogged Recession Will Take a Bite
A new e-commerce service is helping recession-racked contractors cash in on surplus project products. ZamRay.com is quickly becoming the Craigslist of the construction world, with 22,000 visitors and 110,000 page views within its first six months of operation. The Westminster, Colo.-based website is the brainchild of Kurt Fisher, 39, a former warehouse operations manager for electrical supply giant Gexpro, a unit of Dallas-based Rexel Holdings USA. TUDOR VAN HAMPTON/ENR BUCKETS OF CASH? Materials once destined for the Dumpster are now for sale. Related Links: View the Full ENR 2011 Second Quarter Cost Report (PDF) Contractors Hold Line on Pay Hard
This summer was supposed to be when the construction market would turn around, but that has not been the case for most industry firms. More and more, the industry is sensing that summer 2011 will fare no better than 2010's or 2009's “summer of recovery.” With concerns about not just the health of the construction market but also the American economy as a whole, industry confidence is beginning to fall. Related Links: Hard Times Draw the Line For Bargaining Contractors Hold The Line on Pay How John Deere's New Hybrid Wheel Loaders Get Their Juice Creating Cash From Trash Floods
Floods that swelled the Mississippi River to record levels are also threatening to push up the region's materials prices and cause costly delivery delays as the disaster's cost to the construction supply chain mounts. Impeded barge shipments of scrap metal, aggregates, gypsum and other materials on the flooded Mississippi River will drive materials costs up in the region this summer, says Ken Simonson, Associated General Contractors' chief economist. Related Links: View the Full ENR 2011 Second Quarter Cost Report (PDF) Hard Times Draw the Line for Bargaining How John Deere's New Hybrid Wheel Loaders Get Their Juice Liquidating Leftover Materials
For 108 years, groups representing New York City's union contractors and building trades have worked under the New York Plan for the Resolution of Jurisdictional Disputes, an agreement used to resolve inter-union disputes and bind union contractors to use organized labor. But at year-end, the era comes to a close. The Building Trades Employers Association, which represents union contractors, voted in May to let the plan expire after this year, giving members the option to use non-union workers. Related Links: View the Full ENR 2011 Second Quarter Cost Report (PDF) Contractors Hold Line on Pay How John Deere's New Hybrid
Public construction is starting to feel the impact of the battle over the federal budget deficit and the weak financial position of many state and local governments. In April, public construction was running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $282 billion, which was 7.5% below April 2010's pace. It also marked the fourth consecutive month the seasonally adjusted annual rate has declined, according to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce (see chart). On a year-to-date basis, total public construction through the first four months of this year was $79.2 billion, which was 4.2% below the same period of 2010 (see
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