Key Points:
- U.S. construction spending was $1,369.2 billion in January 2020 at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.
- This represented a 1.8 percent increase from December and a 6.8 percent increase from the January 2019 (year-ago) estimate.
- The increase in construction spending surpassed market expectations of a 0.9 percent increase from December.
Economist Corner:
Stronger than expected growth in construction spending is a positive indicator of economic growth. This is in part because the construction spending data is used directly in the calculation of GDP statistics. Increasing construction spending is also a positive indicator for the labor market, raising demand for production and nonsupervisory workers.