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Construction Executive's “2022 Mid-Year Construction Economic Forecast”

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION

Anirban Basu, chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors, returns for his “2022 Mid-Year Construction Economic Update and Forecast,” in which he’ll review the year to date and demystify the ever-changing economic landscape. Basu will address the biggest concerns for contractors, including, but not limited to, the cost of labor and materials and the impact of the $1 trillion infrastructure package, in addition to presenting his exclusive commercial construction forecast.

Basu will also discuss portions of the general economy affecting contractors: inflation (or “stagflation”), the Federal Reserve's interest rate increases, unemployment and labor figures and how changes in consumer demand influence shifts in market sectors.

Sign up for this 60-minute presentation followed by 30 minutes of live Q&A. You may submit questions in advance while registering for this webinar.

SPEAKER INFO

Anirban Basu, Chief Economist, Associated Builders and Contractors
Anirban Basu is chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group Inc., an economic and policy consulting firm headquartered in Baltimore. In 2014, Gov. Larry Hogan appointed him chair of the Maryland Economic Development Commission. He lectures at Johns Hopkins University in global strategy and has also taught international economics, urban economics and micro- and macroeconomics at Hopkins.

Coronavirus Relief for Construction Business

As the federal government has provided more than $6 trillion in relief funding to address the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, ABC advocated for and supported critical bipartisan policies enacted by the U.S. Congress. However, ABC also expressed concerns regarding the most recent $1.9 trillion legislation passed under budget reconciliation and signed into law without bipartisan support.

ABC now urges Congress and the administration to focus on critical policies that will ensure our nation’s construction industry remains strong and ready to lead the economic comeback.

DOL Inspector General Releases Report on Davis-Bacon Wage Audit

On March 29, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General released an audit examining the DOL’s Wage and House Divisions survey process for collecting and determining the prevailing wage rate in four types of construction projects. According to the report, the OIG found that, as of September 2018, 3% of WHD’s 134,738 unique published rates, roughly 4,400, had not been updated in 21 to 40 years. Additionally, of seven sampled surveys that analyzed 124 wage rates, the OIG found 48% of the rates were not determined from data about a single construction worker within the 31 counties that the published rates represented. Finally, the report found union wages prevailed for 48% of the wage determinations, despite the fact that just 12.8% of the U.S. private construction workforce is unionized.

Read more.

The Heritage Foundation: Labor Department Can Create Jobs by Calculating Davis–Bacon Rates More Accurately

According to a report issued by the Heritage Foundation, the United States Department of Labor   uses unscientific and flawed methods to estimate the Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage rates. The report found, amongst other findings, that current surveys do not use statistically representative samples have tiny sample sizes and combine data from economically unrelated counties or set local wages using statewide data. Furthermore, nearly half of the surveys are over a decade old and don’t account for economic changes over the last ten year. The report concludes by suggesting the DOL should switch to Bureau of Labor Statistics data to get a more accurate reading of wage data.

Read more.