Data Watch: Building Industry Groups Report Uptick in Business

Architect optimism bounces back. After a few quarters of declining optimism, the Barometer reading for architects’ sentiment about the state of their industry ticked up 12 points during the first quarter of 2017, to 66, compared with 54 during the last three months of 2016. (A reading over 50 indicates that more firms are reporting that business activity is higher than reporting it is lower, compared to the prior quarter.) For all the industry sectors, an uptick in Barometer scores is typical in the first quarter of the year compared with the last quarter of the year, when the volume of work tends to be lower. So it’s helpful to see how scores compare with the same quarter in the previous year, in this case the first quarter of 2016. Scores for architects and designers are now nearly at the same level as one year ago.