A/E Industry Follows National Economy in Growth Slowdown

The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2025 4th Quarter Quarterly Services Survey (QSS). This data includes revenue for the design and engineering services performed by architecture and engineering companies.

Consistent with broader slowdowns in the overall construction spending market and U.S. economy, the A/E services industry ended the year flat with 0.0% year-over-year nominal growth at $124.4b.

It did finish with a quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 0.2% which highlights the overall resiliency of the A/E services industry, finishing the year with a cumulative total of $495b, up 4.0% from 2024.

With 4th quarter U.S. GDP revised down from 1.4% to 0.7% and preliminary total values of construction put in place for 2025 down -1.4% for 2025 compared to 2024, it is all but guaranteed these slowdowns will show up in A/E firm revenues.

With respect to labor, the industry continues to hire at a rate faster than the overall labor market. In February 2026, total employment at A/E firms rose to 1.75m, up 2.0% from a year.

This industry employment trend is significantly higher than the 0.1% growth in total nonfarm employment across the entire U.S. for the same period.