Earlier this week, VERTEX's CEO, Bill McConnell, gave the kick-off keynote presentation at Zweig’s virtual ElevateAEC event. Zweig Group's President, Chad Clinehens, moderated this event and gave a micro-update of the industry based on survey results and then Bill gave his macro update on the industry.
Key takeaways:
- Coming off the shortest recession in recorded history, the AEC industry is facing inflationary pressures and a shortage of labor resources—this signals that the economy is in a mid to late expansion cycle.
- The combination of unprecedented liquidity and low interest rates will fuel AEC growth into 2022 at lower margins due to material and wage inflation.
- Residential construction continues at a record pace while non-residential construction sectors lag; however, based on AIA’s ABI and Dodge’s Momentum Index, an incredible volume of non-residential work is in the planning stage so non-residential construction sectors will rebound in ‘22.
- A/E firms must embrace growth in order to achieve long-term sustainability. This has become increasingly challenging as firms fight to hire the best of the mere 1.5M workers in the A/E industry. Because unemployment for the A/E sector is only 2%, organic growth is difficult, and more and more firms are looking to M&A to support growth initiatives.
Watch this hour-long video and learn more insights into the AEC sector.
