Construction Economy

$78.7B in data center construction is still unstarted preconstruction — and AGC says the labor pool it's absorbing is tightening bids on projects with no data centers in sight.

Spending fell 3.8% year over year while contractors added 22,000 jobs in August. That gap is where margin goes to die - and why cash timing decides this year.

July's construction spending reads flat. Underneath it, manufacturing is down 21% and the rest of nonresidential is quietly up 2.7%. Two different markets.

A soft July jobs report drove the 10-year Treasury to 4.63% and a September cut back into play — even as construction spending fell 3.2% YoY and data-center delivery risk surfaced.

Backlog held near a multi-year high in June 2026 — but only if you pour data centers. For the other 87% of contractors, the pipeline is thinner and margins are the worry. A look at the split.