Construction starts post small gain in May

Total construction starts rose 3 percent from April to May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $595.1 billion, following a 25 percent decline the previous month, according to Dodge Data & Analytics.

Several large nonresidential building projects broke ground in May, resulting in the gain. Removing those large projects from the statistics would have resulted in no change in construction starts over the month. In May, nonresidential building starts increased 8 percent, while residential building starts rose 4 percent. Nonbuilding starts, however, declined 4 percent during the month.

Through the first five months of 2020, total construction starts were 12 percent lower than in the same period in 2019. Nonresidential starts were down 19 percent, nonbuilding starts were 16 percent lower, and residential starts were off 3 perce