The Associated Builders and Contractors’ Construction Backlog Indicator fell to 8.1 months in November, according to its member survey conducted Nov. 20 to Dec. 8. The reading is down 0.3 months compared with October 2025 and November 2024.
The backlog number is lower on both a monthly and yearly basis for every size of contractor, except for those with more than $100 million in annual revenue.
“Backlog declined sharply in November and is now at the lowest level since February 2024,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “The decline was particularly steep for the smallest contractors; ABC members with under $30 million in annual revenues registered their lowest backlog reading in over four years. Notably, fewer than 6% of those smallest contractors are under contract to work on data center projects, well below the 37% share for contractors with greater than $100 million in annual revenues.”
“Despite the decline in backlog, contractors remain broadly optimistic that their sales and staffing levels will expand over the next six months,” said Basu. “At the same time, just 33.6% of contractors expect their profit margins to expand over the next two quarters, the lowest share in over a year. That likely reflects growing anxiety about materials costs, which have started to rise after several quarters of relative stability.”
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