ENR’s Construction Industry Confidence Index fell four points this quarter, to a rating of 40. Confidence in the current construction market is virtually unchanged, but execs have become more pessimistic about the short- and medium-term future.
Inflated costs, crunched schedules and materials delays are driving a greater interest in alternative project delivery methods, firms say—which is reflected in last year’s rise in design-build and construction management-at-risk revenue.
As economic uncertainty swirls around the Capitol Hill debt limit negotiations, some Top 400 contractors are worried about reaching the limit of their ability to keep projects profitable.
With a hawkish Federal Reserve pushing higher interest rates to fight inflation, the design market could be a canary in a coal mine for what some economists say will be a “mild” recession later this year.
With the economy so far navigating through recession risks, ENR’s Construction Industry Confidence Index shot up 11 points this quarter to a cautiously pessimistic 44 rating, with 68% of survey respondents seeing the current market as either stable or improving, up from 62.7% last quarter.
The third major component in a four-phase modernization of the Port of Long Beach’s fire safety services, this California project’s design actually began in New York.
Construction-in-progress numbers have rebounded among this year's Top Owners, but those numbers don't completely reflect owner confidence in an increasingly volatile market.