The pace of billings growth at architecture firms slowed modestly to end 2018, with AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score declining from 54.7 in November to 50.4 in December (any score over 50 indicates billings growth). But despite flat billings in December, firm billings increased every month of the year in 2018.
And while concern about a potential economic slowdown looms for 2019, firms are not yet seeing any clear signs of it in their project workloads. Inquiries into new projects and the value of new design contracts both continued to grow steadily in December, while backlogs at firms continued to lengthen. In fact, they reached an average of 6.4 months, the strongest they have been since the collection of backlog data began on a quarterly basis in 2010. Architecture firm billings also strengthened at firms located in the Northeast and Midwest in December, with firms in the Midwest reporting particularly strong conditions. Business conditions softened for the third consecutive month at firms located in both the South and the West, but the decline remained relatively minimal. Billings also flattened at firms with a residential specialization in December, but strengthened at firms with commercial/industrial and institutional specializations.