October Construction Up Slightly Over September But Down 9.3 Percent YTY

The Department of Commerce said construction spending during October 2010 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $802.3 billion, 0.7 percent above the revised September estimate of $797.1 billion. The October figure is 9.3 percent below the October 2009 estimate of $884.7 billion. During the first 10 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $684.7 billion, 11.2 percent below the $770.6 billion for the same period in 2009.

Private construction. Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $481.8 billion, 0.8 percent above the revised September estimate of $477.8 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $229.6 billion in October, 2.5 percent above the revised September estimate of $224.0 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $252.2 billion in October, 0.7 percent below the revised September estimate of $253.8 billion. Decreases in the key office (-4.8%) and manufacturing (-5.7%) segments from September pulled down spending on private construction projects

Public construction. In October, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $320.5 billion, 0.4 percent above the revised September estimate of $319.2 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $75 billion, 1.7 percent below the revised September estimate of $76.3 billion. The commercial (+14.4%) and power (+13.2%) market segments showed the highest increases in public construction from September to October.

Value Of New Construction Put In Place — October 2010Value of Construction Put-in-Place ($ billions, seasonally adjusted annual rate)Oct. 2010₁Sep. 2010₂ChangeOct. 2009ChangeTotal Construction 802.324 797.089 0.7 884.7 -9.3 Total Private Construction₁ 481.8 477.8 0.8 571.0 -15.6 Residential 240.3 234.8 2.4 261.1 -8.0 New single family 105.7 106.9 -1.2 108.9 -3.0 New multi-family 14.6 14.1 3.2 21.6 -32.6 Lodging 10.2 10.7 -5.1 20.3 -49.7 Office 35.2 36.9 -4.8 47.6 -26.1 Commercial 39.0 39.7 -1.7 46.0 -15 Health care 40.4 41.0 -1.5 44.0 -8.2 Educational 88.2 89.5 -1.5 96.2 -8.4 Religious 5.1 5.2 -1.8 5.7 -10.8 Public safety 11.7 11.5 1.5 13.3 -12.5 Amusement and recreation 17.9 18.1 -1.0 18.3 -2.5 Transportation 39.9 41.8 -4.4 39.4 1.2 Communication 17.9 17.8 0.1 19.3 -7.6 Power 84.0 77.2 8.8 87.3 -3.9 Highway and street 87.2 86.1 1.2 85.9 1.5 Sewage and waste disposal 26.9 26.5 1.2 23.7 13.1 Water supply 16.1 16.1 -0.4 15.1 6.3 Conservation and development 7.7 7.2 7.2 6.3 23.2 Manufacturing 34.9 37.0 -5.7 55.0 -36.6 Total Public Construction₂ 320.5 319.2 0.4 313.6 2.2 Residential 10.7 10.8 -0.4 8.1 32 Office 12.8 13.2 -3.0 14.7 -13 Commercial 3.2 2.8 14.4 3.7 -12.2 Health care 10.2 10.1 1.6 9.9 2.9 Educational 75.0 76.3 -1.7 81.1 -7.4 Public safety 11.5 11.3 1.4 12.9 -10.7 Amusement and recreation 11.9 11.5 3.1 11.6 2.2 Transportation 31.3 33.3 -6.2 30.6 2.3 Power 15.3 13.5 13.2 10.1 51.4 Highway and street 87.0 86.0 1.2 85.8 1.5 Sewage and waste disposal 26.5 26.1 1.4 23.3 13.6 Water supply 15.5 15.5 -0.1 14.9 4.2 Conservation and development 7.7 7.2 7.2 6.3 23.5

1-Preliminary; 2-Revised

Note: The U.S. Census department changed its construction categories beginning with its May 2003 statistics. With the changes in the project classifications, data now presented are not directly comparable with those data previously published in the regular-format press releases and tables. Direct comparisons can only be made at the total, total private, total state and local, total federal, and total public levels for annual and not seasonally adjusted monthly data. For more information, check out http://www.census.gov/const/www/c30index.html.