Construction Metrics We’re Watching — June 2020

2020 has certainly been an interesting year, let alone in construction. Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), analysts had predicted that there would be an acceleration in the pace of growth in the global construction industry, jumping to 3.1% from 2.6% in 2019.

However, given the severe disruption in China and other leading economies worldwide following the outbreak, the forecast for growth in 2020 has now been revised down to 0.5%.

That said, the metrics we will highlight in this post are at the highest they’ve been since January 2020, meaning the construction industry has seen a strong rebound. Let's take a look at some specific metrics we've been tracking that showcase this trend.

During the pandemic, technology tools have been a differentiator in allowing companies to manage projects safely and remotely. As supported by the project management graph below, Viewpoint customers have continued to operate as allowed by restrictions.

Through the start of COVID-19, there was no significant drop in project management operations. And, after many construction sites reopened in early May, you can see the increase in project activity of 6.4%. "Activity," is defined by the number of documents, RFIs, drawings and submittals going into our systems. Capturing those activities together gives us a good beat on overall activity. The data is showing more project management activity with a significant shift starting in April and continues to be steady over the last couple of weeks.

Different from active project management users, project management activity looks at actions like AP, purchase orders, progress billing and progress entry events among Viewpoint clients.

As with user activity, these project management activities continue to climb as well. There has been a 20% increase since the beginning of the year.

This could be the reflection of businesses leveraging more of their existing technology stack as their workforce shifted to remote work — it is possible they are employing new systems to communicate and continue daily operations.

The largest system impact seen during COVID-19 has been in onboarding and hiring labor. This area is starting to see a positive, upward trend — especially as job sites open back up and warmer weather arrives — but the industry still has a long way to go to be back to the “normal” operating rhythm.

Those are the highlights from this month's activity tracking. But don't wait for us; you can follow the trends for yourself!

Visit the always-on Viewpoint Product Activity Index to get on-demand updates around construction trends.