Fernando de Querol Cumbrera
Research expert covering construction, loans, leasing, savings, and debt
Construction industry in the U.S. - statistics & facts
The market size of the U.S. construction sector was valued at nearly two trillion U.S. dollars in 2023, and it is expected to keep rising in the next couple of years. By 2027, the overall value of construction put in place in the United States, which includes the residential, non-residential, and non-building segments, is forecast to reach over 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars. During the past decades, U.S. spending on private construction has fluctuated more than public construction. In general, the construction industry has been on an upward trend throughout the past decades, except for the years following the financial crisis of 2007.
Although, as seen above, the outlook for the industry as a whole is positive, the IIJA's investment may contribute to the infrastructure construction segment growing at a faster rate than the building construction ones.
Challenges of the construction industry
Construction costs for non-residential buildings rose at a similar rate in 2023 than in the previous year. That happened despite inflation slowing down in other sectors of the U.S. economy. Looking particularly at one of the most important components of those costs, the price change of construction materials, that picture is more nuanced. Although the price of most building materials increased in early 2024, those growth rates were lower than in 2022 and 2023. Additionally, the price of several of those selected materials had fallen quite significantly in March 2024. In addition to those challenges, labor shortage is also an issue for many construction companies. Even though the number of unfilled job openings in the U.S. construction industry have fallen in 2024, they still were significantly higher than several years ago.The effect of the infrastructure bill on construction
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, which was approved in November 2021, authorized 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars of spending. Its effects are still expected to be felt in 2025 and 2026. That spending was necessary, as the U.S. was among the countries with the lowest inland transportation infrastructure investment per capita in 2021. The Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act (IIJA), as it is officially called, focused on all types of transport infrastructure, including electric vehicles, water infrastructure, telecommunications, renewable energies, and ports among others. Nevertheless, roads, bridges, and major projects made up most of the spending announced by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as of May 2022.Although, as seen above, the outlook for the industry as a whole is positive, the IIJA's investment may contribute to the infrastructure construction segment growing at a faster rate than the building construction ones.
