September Monthly Construction Spending (11/16/2023)

FOR RELEASE AT 10:00 AM EDT, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2023

November 1, 2023 — The U.S. Census Bureau announced the following value put in place construction statistics for September 2023

MONTHLY CONSTRUCTION SPENDING, SEPTEMBER 2023:

Release Number: CB23-183

Total Construction

Construction spending during September 2023 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of

$1,996.5 billion, 0.4 percent (±1.2 percent)* above the revised August estimate of $1,988.3 billion. The September figure is 8.7 percent (±1.8 percent) above the September 2022 estimate of $1,836.9 billion. During the first nine months of this year, construction spending amounted to $1,463.5 billion, 4.6 percent (±1.2 percent) above the $1,398.9 billion for the same period in 2022.

Private Construction

Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,555.9 billion, 0.4 percent (±0.7 percent)* above the revised August estimate of $1,549.6 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $872.0 billion in September, 0.6 percent (±1.3 percent)* above the revised August estimate of $866.6 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $683.9 billion in September, 0.1 percent (±0.7 percent)* above the revised August estimate of

$683.0 billion.

Public Construction

In September, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $440.6 billion, 0.4 percent (±2.1 percent)* above the revised August estimate of $438.7 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $94.4 billion, 1.9 percent (±2.5 percent)* above the revised August estimate of $92.7 billion. Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $131.1 billion, 0.2 percent (±5.3 percent)* below the revised August estimate of $131.4 billion.

The October 2023 Monthly Construction Spending Report is scheduled for release on December 1, 2023. View the full schedule in the Economic Briefing Room: <www.census.gov/economic-indicators/>. The full text and tables for this release can be found at <www.census.gov/constructionspending/>.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

In interpreting changes in the statistics in this release, note that month-to-month changes in seasonally adjusted statistics often show movements which may be irregular. It may take 2 months to establish an underlying trend for total construction and as long as 8 months for specific categories of construction. The statistics in this release are estimated from several sources and surveys and are subject to sampling variability as well as nonsampling error including bias and variance from response, nonreporting, and undercoverage. Estimates of the standard errors are provided in Table 3. Whenever a statement such as "2.3 percent (±3.1 percent) above" appears in the text, this indicates the range (-0.8 to +5.4 percent) in which the actual percentage change is likely to have occurred. All ranges given are 90 percent confidence intervals and account only for sampling variability. If a range does not contain zero, the change is statistically significant. If it does contain zero, the change is not statistically significant; that is, it is uncertain whether there was an increase or decrease. Statistics for the current month are preliminary estimates subject to revision in following months as additional data become available. The average absolute percent changes from preliminary estimate to first revision for the major seasonally adjusted components are as follows: total construction, 0.86 percent; private construction, 0.94 percent; and public construction, 1.18 percent.

Explanations of confidence intervals and sampling variability can be found on our website at

<www.census.gov/construction/c30/meth.html/>.