Nonresidential construction offsets housing slump
Nonresidential construction grew in November and accelerating hiring by architects and engineers suggests future growth, according to Ken Simonson, Chief Economist for The Associated General
Contractors of America (AGC). Simonson was quoted in the November 6 issue of Building Design & Construction News.
According to AGC, residential construction spending was down 16 percent from the year before while nonresidential was up almost 17 percent. That means that residential construction workers - as many as 400,000 of them - were doing nonresidential work.
Architectural and engineering employment rose 3.7 percent in the past 12 months, triple the growth in the overall economy, AGC reported.