ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator, which reflects the amount of work that will be performed by commercial and industrial contractors in the months ahead, reached a record high of 9.9 months in the second quarter of 2018, a 12.2 percent increase from the first quarter of the year. This national forward-looking data has provided insight on the construction economy since it launched in 2009 and has been a leading indicator of our industry’s economic health for nearly a decade.
In 2019, ABC plans to take CBI to a new level by increasing the frequency of the reports from quarterly to monthly, which will not only increase the media value of the indicator but allow a better gauge of the state of the merit shop construction industry. ABC would also like to grow the participation in each state to provide additional data and analysis by region and by industry segments to continue to highlight ABC and the construction industry on a national scale.
We want to encourage ABC members to take the time to regularly complete the survey, which is sent to around the 20th of each month and only takes roughly three minutes. The survey is not anonymous, but individual responses will be held in the strictest confidence and contractor names are never released along with the data and analysis. Previous Construction Backlog Indicator reports can be found on ABC’s website here. Please contact Rachel O’Grady at ogrady@abc.org with any questions.