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News Brief

Date Posted: August 28 2009

Trend improves for U.S. construction

The value of new construction starts climbed 8% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $420.3 billion, it was reported Aug. 18 by McGraw-Hill Construction.

“Nonresidential building strengthened after a very weak June, while residential building continued to edge upward from its depressed performance at the outset of 2009,” the report said.

On an unadjusted basis, total construction during the first seven months of 2009 was reported at $236 billion, down 35% from a year ago. The year-to-date declines, the report said, have become slightly smaller in recent months, and the trend is expected to continue.

“Since March there’s been an up-and-down pattern for construction starts, supporting the belief that a leveling-off process is now under way,” said Robert A. Murray, vice president of economic affairs for McGraw-Hill Construction. “This follows the steep decline during the latter half of 2008 that carried over into early 2009.”

He added: “Single-family housing, while still at an extremely low volume, has now shown improvement in five out of the past six months. Public works construction is beginning to reveal a faster pace for transportation-related projects, helped by the federal stimulus funding. For nonresidential building, the broad downward trend is still in progress, but occasionally there are upticks, such as the strengthening that occurred in July following the dismal activity in June.”

For construction activity on a regional level for the previous 12 months ending in July, the Midwest fared the best – down “only” 24 percent.

PLA seminar set for Oct. 12 at MSU

The Michigan State University School of Labor and Industrial Relations is sponsoring a conference titled “Building Success: Best Practices in Construction Project Labor Agreements” that may be of interest to union officers.

The conference will be held Monday, Oct. 12 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center, Lincoln Room, on the MSU campus.

Agenda items include speakers who will address “What do you want in a PLA,” PLAs in schools and other public owners,” “PLAs and the open shop,”  Dispute resolution under PLAs, and panel discussions addressing “Where to begin?” and “Perspectives on PLAs,” that includes guest Peter Phillips from the University of Utah.

A registration form and further information can be found in this edition on Page 12.