The new year has begun with price increases and announcements of more to come for steel, copper, aluminum and diesel fuel. As one construction executive told the Institute for Supply Management in its January survey of nonmanufacturing purchasing managers, “Pricing pressures are starting to heat up.”

Construction spending in November totaled $810 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, up 0.4% from October and the third straight monthly gain, the Census Bureau reported on Monday. The total was down 6.0% from a year ago, the smallest year-over-year drop since April 2008.

The week before Christmas brought glad tidings to construction. But some stockings were stuffed with lumps of coal.

U.S. population increased 9.7% from 2000 to 2010, down from the 13.2% growth rate of the previous decade and the slowest 10-year growth rate since 1930-40, the Census Bureau reported today. Nevada again had the highest growth rate (35%) among states but also the biggest slowdown (31 percentage points less than in 1990-2000).

The producer price index (PPI) for finished goods rose 0.4% in November, not seasonally adjusted (0.8%, seasonally adjusted), and 3.5% from November 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Tuesday. The PPI for inputs to construction—a weighted average of the cost of materials used in all types of construction, plus items consumed by contractors such as diesel fuel—climbed 0.5% and 4.6%, respectively.

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 39,000, seasonally adjusted, in November, and private-sector payrolls grew by 50,000, the 11th straight monthly increase, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. Construction employment, in contrast, remained in near-recession condition.

Construction employment either increased or remained steady in one-third – 113 of 337 metropolitan areas – between October 2009 and October 2010 according to a new analysis of federal employment data released Thursday by AGC. 

Construction spending increased 0.7% in October to $802.3 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, but was down 9.3% from October 2009, the Census Bureau reported today.

View AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson’s presentation on the outlook for construction activity, materials and labor.

Total construction spending increased by 0.7 percent in October, driven largely by growing demand for power projects and public construction, AGC noted Wednesday in an analysis of new Census Bureau data.  The new data, however, indicated continued weakness in many construction categories, including private nonresidential and single family construction, association officials observed.