What's Driving a 25% Increase in Commercial Construction
Housing starts may be hot, but the nonresidential building sector is looking to overtake the market for 2015.
Construction behemoth Gilbane’s newly released Summer 2015 Construction Economics Report forecasts an increase of more than 25% in commercial projects this year, while residential construction is projected to increase less than 14%.
What’s spurring this boom? Educational buildings, healthcare centers, commercial/retail construction and office buildings are the lion’s share of activity. While this is good news for developers and construction firms there is one caveat: the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for the construction industry has been over 100,000 for 26 of the 28 months through June 2015, and has been trending up since 2012. So the need is there, but the workers may not be.
