When people see construction going on in their community, it often has a positive effect — a signal that business is prospering and the local economy is growing. Here, Cle Austin, president of E.E. Austin & Son, Inc., with offices in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Falconer, New York, talks about the state of the construction industry and some of the trends in the field today.
For more than 100 years, E.E. Austin & Son has been providing quality construction services to northwest
Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York. How would you describe the state of the construction industry today?
The construction industry in our region is still recovering from the Great Recession. 2016 was an extremely slow year. This slow down affects contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and the workforce. Unemployment has been stubbornly high in the trades. The unemployment rate continues to exceed the general unemployment rate. A rebound has started in mid 2017. The highway market is strong, as is health care. Residential, retail and education are flat. Industrial projects and municipal work are starting to make a comeback. Office building, in general, is weak with the exception of the large Erie Insurance project, which is just getting started.
Read the entire Spotlight Q&A here at https://issuu.com/mbabusinessmagazine/docs/businessmagazinenovember2017/12.
