Let’s look at the data:

In the first quarter of this year, we’ve seen roughly 36% of commercial construction contractors expecting their revenue to increase over the next year, which is a jump of incredible 11 percentage points from 25% in the last quarter of 2020.

Around 88% of contractors expect their revenue to either stay where it currently is or increases. This percentage also increased from 86% last year.

In addition, most contractors also report a moderate to a high level of confidence that the real estate market will provide enough new business in the upcoming years. The percentage of contractors being confident has increased from last year’s 19% to nearly 24% during the Q1 of 2021.

Another key element of positive outlooks is that nearly half of contractors are planning to employ more people in the next period of six months, up from 37% in the last quarter of 2020.

As the situation seems to be getting better each day, contractors are expecting to hire more workers.

It is still worth mentioning that the industry still has a way to go to return to pre-pandemic levels, but we have noticed a significant optimism in the market, which is considered to be a positive sign for the broader economy.

One thing that is a critical issue is finding skilled workers. In fact, this has already been a problem in the industry for the last few years. The positive news is that the U.S. Chamber is committed to supporting businesses in retraining and making sure the economy has the skilled workforce it needs.

Lack of skilled workers causes ongoing troubles

While we can be happy about the positive signs of the recovery, we still have to face something not so exciting, and that are the workforce challenges. In the first quarter of 2021, around 85% of contractors reported moderate to high levels of difficulty with finding skilled workers. Not to mention that of those 85%, nearly half reports a high level of difficulty.

The essential information you need to know is that around 94% of contractors who reported moderate to a high degree of concern expect the very problem of finding workers having adequate skill levels to stay at the same difficulty or even get worse in the upcoming six months.

Conclusion

After reading our brief article, you now have all the necessary knowledge about commercial construction contractor’s outlooks as well as common issues they seem to face.

If you would like to get to know more about us or ask us any questions, feel free to reach out to us. Our team will be more than happy to help You.