May Construction Down 7.1 Percent Year-to-Year to $753.5 Billion Annual Rate

The Department of Commerce said construction spending during May was at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $753.5 billion, 0.6 percent below the revised April estimate of $757.9 billion. The May construction spending figure is 7.1 percent below the May 2010 estimate of $811.2 billion. During the first five months of this year, construction spending amounted to $285.1 billion, 6.3 percent below the $304.4 billion for the same period in 2010.

Private construction

Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $477.2 billion, 0.4 percent below the revised April estimate of $479.3 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $228.9 billion in May, 2.1 percent below the revised April estimate of $233.8 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $248.3 billion in May, 1.2 percent above the revised April estimate of $245.4 billion.

Public construction

In May, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $276.3 billion, 0.8 percent below the revised April estimate of $278.6 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $68.6 billion, 2.3 percent below the revised April estimate of $70.2 billion.

The key construction categories with the biggest decreases over the past 12 months included lodging (-28.8%); manufacturing (-19.6%); office (-12.4%); and single-family home construction (-11.9%). On the flip side, construction of electric power facilities increased significantly both month-to-month (+5.2%) and year-to-year (+27.2%).

Value Of New Construction Put In Place — May 2011

Value of Construction Put-in-Place ($ millions, seasonally adjusted annual rate)

May '11₁ Apr'11₂ Mo. % Change May'10 YTY % Change Total Construction 753,483 757,851 -0.6 811,249 -7.1 Total Private Construction₁ 477,213 479,275 -0.4 506,752 -5.8 Residential (incl. improvements)₂ 228,935 233,837 -2.1 245,216 -6.6 New single family 105,186 105,466 -0.3 119,327 -11.9 New multi-family 13,251 13,532 -2.1 14,222 -6.8 Lodging 7,848 7,732 1.5 11,015 -28.8 Office 21,194 20,916 1.3 24,186 -12.4 Commercial (incl. farm) 36,730 36,882 -0.4 37,660 -2.5 Health Care 28,325 28,573 -0.9 30,098 -5.9 Educational 12,612 13,185 -4.3 13,472 -6.4 Religious 4,038 4,191 -3.7 5,404 -25.3 Amusement and Recreation 5,627 5,522 1.9 6,761 -16.8 Transportation 10,423 9,970 4.5 10,054 3.7 Communication 17,575 18,094 -2.9 18,672 -5.9 Power (incl. gas and oil) 70,763 67,787 4.4 63,484 11.5 Electric 56,018 53,252 5.2 44,026 27.2 Manufacturing 31,576 31,021 1.8 39,293 -19.6 Total Public Construction₁ 276,270 278,577 -0.8 304,497 -9.3 Residential 8,399 8,621 -2.6 9,748 -13.8 Office 11,629 11,845 -1.8 13,542 -14.1 Commercial 3,597 3,437 4.7 2,619 37.3 Health care 10,518 10,673 -1.5 9,067 16.0 Educational 68,621 70,223 -2.3 75,186 -8.7 Public safety 9,806 9,590 2.3 11,466 -14.5 Amusement and recreation 9,190 9,106 0.9 10,035 -8.4 Transportation 25,326 25,826 -1.9 30,082 -15.8 Power 9,977 10,115 -1.4 9,959 0.2 Highway and street 74,733 75,892 -1.5 84,212 -11.3 Sewage and waste disposal 22,503 21,594 4.2 25,124 -10.4 Water supply 13,300 13,425 -0.9 15,300 -13.1 Conservation and development 7,312 7,087 3.2 7,104 2.9

1-Preliminary; 2-Revised

Note: The U.S. Census department changed its construction categories beginning with its May 2003 statistics.

With the changes in the project classifications, data now presented are not directly comparable with those data previously published in the regular-format press releases and tables. Direct comparisons can only be made at the total, total private, total state and local, total federal, and total public levels for annual and not seasonally adjusted monthly data. For more information, check out http://www.census.gov/const/www/c30index.html.