Construction Executives Give Future Thumbs-Up

Mar 07, 2017

Construction industry executives are extremely optimistic on the state of their industry, according to the 2017 Construction Industry Forecast of contractors and equipment distributors released from Wells Fargo Equipment Finance.

The survey’s Optimism Quotient (OQ) for measuring industry sentiment reached 123 for 2017, its third-highest reading in 20 years. Contractors and distributors reported similar cost concerns: contractors were focused primarily on employee wages and other benefits (24 percent), taxes (21 percent) and healthcare costs (19 percent), while contractors were concentrating on distributors were concentrating on equipment costs (31 percent) and healthcare costs (22 percent).

“An OQ reading at this level leads us to believe that the industry will continue to build on the momentum generated over the last few years,” said John Crum, senior vice president and national sales manager of the Construction Group at Wells Fargo Equipment Finance. “Contractors have increasingly improved their businesses and this year looks to provide more opportunities to do that again.”

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Phil Hall

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Mar 07, 2017

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