Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Looking for work? Become a construction spending forecaster

From Reuters:
U.S. construction spending fell 0.9 percent in May to the lowest rate in more than five years, with the economic stimulus plan passed in February providing little relief in public construction, according to Commerce Department data released on Wednesday.

The drop was more than expected, with economists polled by Reuters forecasting a fall of only 0.5 percent.
Construction spending is clearly off as the industry continues to struggle, but it seems that economists are having a real tough time forecasting the number.

In fact the Bloomberg survey of forecasts historically has little correlation with the actual numbers, particularly recently.



Anyone out there interested in trying to forecast construction spending? Shouldn't be hard to beat the consensus.