The first week of the month is an eventful one for economic data. Last week was no exception. First the Commerce Department announced that total construction spending had declined year-over-year, but was still near all-time record high levels at $1.282 trillion dollars annually. The news that followed was rosier.
The Commerce Department released its first estimate of GDP growth for the January-March 2019 quarter. The 3.2% annualized jump was higher than expected. The above average growth was a turnabout from the talk of recession from earlier this year. There were two notes of caution in the report, however. First, GDP was inflated by an unusual buildup in inventories, which generally means that a following quarter will have lower growth from inventory depletion, There was also a temporary decline in imports, likely resulting from tariffs, which boosted consumption of U.S. goods. The second caution was the 1.3% increase in the sales of domestic goods to consumers and businesses. This suggests that underlying demand is lower than the headline GDP growth.
On May 3, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Employment Situation Summary, which found 263,000 jobs had been created in April. Unemployment fell to 3.6%, with the number of unemployed persons falling to 5.8 million. That’s more than one million fewer people than there are jobs open, which underscores the seriousness of the problems that businesses are having with finding workers. In reality, this trend of roughly one million more jobs than workers has existed for a year or so, and it should have slowed the economy by now. Obviously, that hasn’t happened.
Light regional construction news. Research of April’s building permits in Pittsburgh revealed that Cavcon was selected to build Vollmer America’s new $4.8 million building in Findlay Township. PJ Dick has started work on the new $26 million multi-modal garage behind Bakery Square on Dahlem Place. A. Martini & Co. started demolition on the $6.5 million Wabtec TI at 30 Isabella Street on the North Shore.