Electrical Marketing’s Leading Economic Indicators - June 2018

Building permits dip in May. Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,301,000, -4.6% below the revised April rate of 1,364,000, but +8% above the May 2017 rate of 1,205,000, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Single-family authorizations in May were at a rate of 844,000, -2.2% below the revised April figure of 863,000.

Permian Basin accounts for lion’s share of growth in U.S. oil rig count. While the latest national data from the Baker Hughes rig count looks promising with an increase of 116 new rigs on a year-over-year (YOY) basis through mid-June, approximately 90% of those new rigs are in Texas’ Permian Basin. That oil field has 475 oil rigs operating, an increase of 106 rigs year-over-year. The United States currently has 863 oil rigs operating.

Rail freight traffic shows nice increase in June. The Association of American Railroads (AAR)reported that U.S. rail traffic for the week ending June 16 was 558,098 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.1% compared with the same week last year. For the first 24 weeks of 2018, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 6,208,034 carloads, up 1.3% over last year; and 6,571,354 intermodal units, up 6% from last year. Seven of the 10 carload commodity groups posted YOY increases. Petroleum and petroleum products showed the biggest YOY increase at +20.6% to 11,256 carloads.

Architecture firm billings grow in May. The AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score for May was 52.8 (any score over 50 is billings growth), which shows that demand for services from architecture firms continues to be healthy. Published by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the ABI also indicated that business conditions remain strong at firms located in the South and West, while growth in billings was modest at firms in the Northeast and Midwest.

“Architecture firms continue to have plenty of work as they enter the busiest part of the design and construction season,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker. “This is especially true for firms serving the institutional building sector, which reported their strongest growth in billings in several years.”