According to the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce, construction spending increased slightly during April 2011 to an annual rate of $765.0 billion, 0.4% above March 2011. However, April 2011 was still 9.3% lower than last year’s estimate of $843.1 billion. Since the beginning of 2011, the first four months have seen construction spending of $222.7 billion, which is 8.4% below the same period last year.

Public construction was the main carrier of this decrease in spending as all the budget cuts that are going on at every level of government. Public construction spending for April fell 1.9% from March to $282.0 billion. Educational construction and highway construction experienced losses of 2.7% and 1.6% respectively from March 2011.

Private construction was the cause in the overall spending increasing as spending on private construction increased 1.7%. The private spending showed an annual rate of $483.0 billion. Both residential construction and nonresidential construction showed improvement in spending of 3.1% and 0.5% respectively. Residential was at an annual rate of $232.1 billion in April while nonresidential was at $250.8 billion.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce