Data from the US Census Bureau showed Tuesday that construction spending during November 2011 was at an approximate annual rate of $807.1 billion, up 1.2 percent from October spending of $797.4 billion. Construction spending in November reflected the third month of growth over the last four months--spending in October had dropped 0.2 percent from the previous month. The November figure is also 0.5 percent above the November 2010 annual rate of $803.0 billion.
Nevertheless, during the first 11 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $724.8 billion, 2.5 percent below the $743.6 billion for the same period in 2010.
Spending on both private and public construction contributed to the increase. Private construction spending was at an annual rate of $522.3 billion, 1 percent above the October level, while the annual rate of public construction spending was $284.9 billion--1.7 percent above spending in October.