ACEC Releases Monthly Economic Update for the Engineering and Design Industry
ACEC News / Market Forecast
December 23, 2021
ACEC Releases Monthly Economic Update for the Engineering and Design Industry
- The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) could add $132 billion and 82,000 jobs to the engineering and design sector, according to newly released estimates from the ACEC Research Institute and Rockport Analytics.
- Total design and construction is up 7.5% from January through October 2021 over the same time-frame last year, per U.S. Census Bureau. That category remains driven by private residential spending which is up more than 24% over last year.
- The economic growth outlook was downgraded in the latest National Association for Business Economics (NABE) survey. Respondents still expect economic growth and an increase in GDP, but point to inflation and vaccination challenges as obstacles.
- Supply of goods is expected to normalize in the first half of 2022, a majority of NABE respondents say. As engineers design for additional building for IIJA projects, this is especially important for construction materials in our industry.
- Inflation won’t come down to 2% until the second half of 2023, NABE survey respondents predict. Two percent is the Federal Reserve’s stated goal, and respondents name supply chain bottle necks as the largest factor expected to keep inflation above that mark through the first half of 2022. Looking longer term, respondents said rising wages was the biggest factor over the next three years to keeping inflation above 2%. Wage pressure is one of the key challenges of the current engineering and design industry specifically.
