Keeping Cool, Staying Warm: Construction and Maintenance Insulation

August 6 2024

Economy, Labor Management, TAUC News

If you watched the news this morning, or read the economics section of the morning paper, or seen your local stockbroker frantically waving their arms on the floor of the NYSE, you are probably aware of the market ‘free-fall’ that took place today – the Dow dropped over 1,000 points, the Nasdaq fell 3.5%, and the S&P slid 3%. Driven by steep drops in Asia that rippled across the global economy, today was a gut punch across the globe.

The beginning of the end? A hiccup in an otherwise steady period of growth for the markets? Something somewhere in the middle? It will be a few days (or weeks, or months) before we will know for sure what is in store for the next few months. But there is a light in all of the potential darkness closing in: commercial construction and maintenance is a resilient economic sector, and one that is well positioned for the future regardless of the turbulence surrounding the greater US economy.

This stability is due in large part to projects already underway in the renewable energy space and infrastructure improvements going on across the country. These projects help to insulate the commercial construction and maintenance industry from the economic instability that affects other branches of construction, namely the residential sector. After a torrid summer in terms of new home construction, a drop off in starts and new hires was bound to come eventually, but maybe not as quickly or as harshly as what happened between May and August.

Now it may not be all roses, as project timelines can be fluid, and having enough consistent work for labor already in the building is and will remain a fickle calculation, but there is more hope among members of this industry than many others. Roads, bridges, battery factories, and clean energy facilities are necessary regardless of the state of the economy at large, and the construction and maintenance industry must continue these projects and others to weather the economic ebbs and flows.