Construction spending for May 2011 was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $753.5 billion, 0.6% below April’s $757.9 billion. May 2011’s rate is also 7.1% below last year’s estimate of $811.2 billion. From the beginning of 2011 until May, construction spending amounted to $285.1 billion, which is still below last year’s time period by 6.3%.

Private construction also saw drawbacks for May, receding 0.4% to an adjusted annual rate of $477.2 million. While residential construction losses contributed to this decrease at a loss of 2.1%, nonresidential construction increased 1.2% from April. Both the single family and multi-family components under private construction saw decreases of 11.9% and 6.8% respectively from May 2010 levels.

Public construction spending was also below April estimates, by 0.8% to $276.3 billion. Educational construction led the decrease with a 2.3% loss while highway construction followed closely behind with a 1.5% decrease since April 2011. Commercial construction showed the largest increase by segment with a 4.7% increase since April and a 37.3% increase from May 2010.

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