February brings another good month of construction numbers

One of the big policy and economic successes in the last year has been the growth in the construction sector, both in employment (up 270,000 jobs in the last 12 months measured), and in getting new single-family homes online, which can help with housing affordability.

The total value of construction put into place is up 10.7% year-over-year, and even with a seasonally-adjusted decline with overall construction in the last 2 months, single-family home construction kept rebounding in February, with that part of the sector up nearly 20% from its recent low in April 2023.

While the growth in construction of manufacturing facilities has leveled off in recent months, that part of the sector is still building double the value of facilities that it was building in June 2022.

And June 2022 is one month before the then-Dem controlled Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act to encourage more tech manufacturing in America.

You can claim correlation isn't causation, but I don't think it's coicidence that this strength is construction has been ongoing in 2023 and 2024. And if we can get the Federal Reserve to stop chasing the ghost of inflation and get interest rates off of their 23-year highs, there might be even more building set to happen.