Construction Labor

$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 construction spending fell 3.8% y/y and input costs held at 7.1% — double the 3.5% rise in bid prices — as backlog slipped to 8.0 months and September Fed-hike odds jumped toward 60%.

Diesel added 39.5¢ in two weeks, construction wages decoupled to +5.2% while the private sector cooled, and ground-up credit is the one CRE category still tightening; a September cut is now unpriced.