(07-23-21) Nearly six in 10 firms report that they are having problems filling open architectural staff positions. Architecture firms reported another month of extremely strong business conditions in June, with an ABI score of 57.1 (any score over 50 indicates billings growth). While slightly fewer firms reported an increase in firm billings in June than in May, the current pace of billings growth remains near the highest levels ever seen in the history of the index. In addition, inquiries surged to a new all-time high score of 71.8, and the value of new design contracts remained very high as well, with a score of 58.9. In addition, firms reported their highest backlogs in two years, with an average of 6.5 months. This ties the all-time high average since we started collecting backlog data on a quarterly basis in 2010, and follows a plummet down to just 5.0 months at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Business conditions remained robust at firms in all regions of the country in June as well, with firms located in the Midwest reporting the strongest growth for the fourth consecutive month. Billings have also surged at firms located in the West recently as well. By firm specialization, firms with a commercial/industrial specialization saw another particularly strong increase in billings this month, while conditions remained very strong at firms with multifamily residential and institutional specializations as well. US economy continues to improve – The latest edition of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report, released on July 14, shows that the US economy continued to grow at a generally robust pace throughout June and into early July. This surge was largely led by above average growth in the transportation, travel and tourism, manufacturing, and nonfinancial services industries. However, while residential construction slowed in several areas of the country due to rising materials costs, even as lumber prices have eased recently, the San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia districts reported increasing demand for multifamily residential construction. Industrial construction was particularly strong in the Boston, Philadelphia, and Dallas districts, while office construction weakened or remained stagnant across much of the country, particularly in the New York district. Nonfarm payroll employment also showed strong gains in June, adding 850,000 new positions, nearly 300,000 more than were added in May. However, construction employment declined by 7,000 positions, and remains more than 238,000 positions below its pre-pandemic peak. Architecture services employment added 400 new positions in May, the most recent data available, which is fewer new positions than added in the previous few months. However, the industry is now just 4,500 positions below its most recent peak from February 2020.
Architecture Billings Index (07-23-21)
- Architecture Billings Index, Economic Monthly Summaries
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