(12-20-18)
Business conditions improved at architecture firms in November as AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score climbed to 54.7 for the month, the highest level since January. Despite some concerns about a potential economic downturn, firms continue to report strong billings, as well as new project inquiries. The value of new design contracts also showed strong growth in November, indicating that there is still plenty of work to come in the next few months.
Firm billings remained strong at architecture firms located in the Northeast and Midwest in November for the second consecutive month. Business conditions at firms in the Northeast, in particular, have rebounded dramatically from the slowdown earlier this year. And while growth has slowed somewhat at firms in the Midwest, it remains strong overall. Business conditions did soften modestly at firms located in the West for the second month in a row, while billings remained basically flat at firms in the South. Billings growth was also reported by firms of all specializations this month, with firms with a commercial/industrial specialization seeing the strongest growth. Conditions were more mixed in the general economy in November. Although nonfarm payroll employment continued to grow, the increase of 155,000 positions for the month was well below average monthly gains of 209,000 for the prior 12 months. In addition, construction employment was essentially flat for the month, with just 5,000 positions added. However, architecture services employment has continued to show steady growth throughout the year, seeing an increase of 5,900 positions for the year so far and climbing to a total of 198,900 employed in the industry as of October—the most recent data available.