Construction: Employment Expectations Hit New High

The business climate in construction clouded over marginally at the beginning of the year, but nevertheless remains extremely favourable. The contractors surveyed assessed their current business situation more positively than ever. Moreover, firms were less confident about the short-term future than recently. Capacity utilisation rose from 78.5 percent to 79.8%, and was thus 3.1 percentage points above the level seen in the same period last year. 45% of survey participants reported constraints on construction activity (January 2017: 43%). 28% of the contractors surveyed complained of poor weather constraints, which was around the same figure as the year previously. 13% cited a shortage of workers (January 2017: 7%) and 9% reported a lack of orders (January 2017: 14%). The order backlog grew marginally by 0.1 months to 3.9 months; versus 3.5 months for the same period in 2017. Price increases were implemented slightly more frequently than recently. Contractors expect to have greater scope to implement price increases in the short term. More companies also plan to increase their staff numbers over the next three to four months. The survey result reached its highest level since German reunification.