Associated General Contractors - AGC- released new national plan detailing measures to stimulate demand for construction

AGC (Associated General Contractors) released a new national plan on March 15, 2011, detailing measures to stimulate demand for construction.

Titled, “Building a Stronger Future: A New Blueprint for Economic Growth,” AGC says that “the plan is necessary to reverse construction employment declines that have taken place in 317 out of 337 metro areas since January 2007, according to new data.” AGC goes on to say, “the industry continues to shed jobs because demand for construction remains weak. While $884 billion was invested in construction in 2009, that amount shrank $100 billion in 2010 to a ten year low. That decline in construction activity has largely been driven by a collapse in private sector demand.”

That $100 billion decline in construction investment, 2009 vs. 2010, represented an 11.3% decline, year over year.

On March 10, 2011, we did a post about ARC’s “U.S.” Sales, 2010 vs. 2009. In one of the paragraphs in that post we said this …..

“ARC’s U.S. Sales, 2010 vs. 2009, declined 14.55% - compared to Service Point Solutions’ U.S. Sales decline of 14.44%. In other words, the U.S. Sales of both companies were off nearly the same percentage.”

When you consider that ARC’s U.S. Sales decline was an “overall” decline, meaning that, in spite of possible increases in ARC’s U.S. Sales due to ARC’s Riot Color initiatives in 2010, ARC’s “overall” Sales declined by 14.55%, it “looks like” ARC’s revenues from the A/E/C sector declined more than the 3.25% difference between the construction-investment decline and ARC’s “overall” U.S. Sales decline. In other words, if we subtracted out “color” sales from ARC’s revenues, year over year, 2009 vs. 2010, and then compared just ARC’s A/E/C Sales, year over year, 2009 vs. 2010, is it possible that ARCs A/E/C Sales decline was even worse than the 14.55% “overall” decline? Could that be attributable to A/E/C customers printing less hard-copy prints per project? Since ARC does not break out it’s A/E/C Sales, we really don’t, and won’t, know the answer to that question.

Okay, back to the original reason for today’s post.

On March 15, 2011, AGC released a new national plan detailing measures to stimulate demand for construction.

Here are “links” to the different items presented by AGC:

Full press release.

Conference Call Remarks.

Building a Stronger Future: A New Blueprint for Economic Growth.

The Plan’s Fact Sheet.

Metro construction employment changes since January 2007.

Metro construction employment changes since January 2010.

Listen to the media conference call.