Articles

In 2023, total U.S. imports of ceramic were 185.7 million square meters, a decline of 8.2% from the year 2022 when imports were 202.3 million square meters, according to Grosser Consulting. Read More

U.S. floor coverings sales could have turned the corner in the fourth quarter of 2023 after seeing declining sales over the first three quarters of the year. Based on monthly data, Catalina estimates U.S. floor covering manufacturer dollar sales (shipments minus exports plus imports) could have increased by 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter, while square foot sales could have risen by 1.9 percent. Read More

The construction industry added 11,000 jobs on net in January, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On a year-over-year basis, industry employment has expanded by 216,000 jobs, an increase of 2.7%. Read More

Consumer sentiment rose to 79.0 in January, a 13.3% increase from December, according to final results from the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. This represents a 21.7% increase year over year. Read More

"The Federal Reserve signaled it was thinking about when to lower interest rates but hinted a cut wasn’t imminent when it held rates steady at its first policy meeting of the year on Wednesday,” reports the Wall Street Journal. Read More

The construction industry will need to attract an estimated 501,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2024 to meet the demand for labor, according to a proprietary model developed by Associated Builders and Contractors Read More

"The recession never showed up in 2023. Consumers made sure of it,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “The U.S. economy grew 3.1% over the past year, the Commerce Department said Thursday. A resilient labor market supported strong consumer spending and brushed aside a feared downturn. A year ago economists saw a recession as very likely and projected anemic 0.2% growth for the year. Instead, last year’s gain was a sharp pickup from a comparable 0.7% advance in 2022. Read More

Falling interest rates in the closing weeks of 2023 helped to bring buyers off the sidelines and provide a boost for new home sales. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in December increased 8.0% to a 664,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate from an upwardly revised reading in November, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The pace of new home sales in December is up 4.4% from a year earlier. Read More

Personal income increased $60.0 billion (0.3 percent at a monthly rate) in December. Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—increased $51.8 billion (0.3 percent). Read More

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the "advance" estimate. Read More