Residential or nonresidential?<\/p>\n
This is a question brought to my attention in my discussion with Joe Schulz<\/a>. Without hard numbers broken down to Wisconsin level (that I know of), it\u2019s hard to say.<\/p>\n What does the surge in construction coincide with? It\u2019s not so much with housing starts as with the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act.<\/p>\n Figure 1:<\/strong> Midwest housing starts single family units, 000\u2019s, n.s.a. (blue, left scale), Wisconsin construction, mn 2017$, SAAR (tan, right scale). Source: Census, BEA.<\/em><\/p>\n Wisconsin real construction value added jumped right after the passage of these two pieces of legislation, while housing starts don\u2019t start rising until 2023Q2.<\/p>\n Inspection of the types of construction employment further suggests that nonresidential investment of some type is pushing employment.<\/p>\n Figure 2:<\/strong> Wisconsin 12 month employment change in building construction (teal), in heavy and civil engineering (tan), in specialty trade contractors (green), and building equipment contractors (red), not seasonally adjusted. Source: DWD, and author\u2019s calculations.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019d imagine heavy and civil engineering more associated with building factories and putting in infrastructure (linked with manufacturing, and with alternative energy) than residential.<\/p>\n We do have a breakdown of construction workers between residential and nonresidential employment at the national level.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/econbrowser.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/housing_constr_pix.png\")
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/econbrowser.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/res_nonres_const_emplpix1.png\")
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