Boom and Bust Pull Further Apart in Construction: ABC Economist

By Priya Raman

The economy has "become more extreme," said Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC, a U.S. construction trade group). Strong sectors are booming even harder. Weak sectors are sliding faster.

That's the whole story in one line. Construction's winners and losers are drifting farther apart, and the gap between them is widening rather than settling.

What does this mean for contractors?

Basu's framing points to a split-market reality. Firms tied to healthy segments ride accelerating demand. Firms tied to struggling segments face challenges that, in his words, keep mounting. The middle ground is thinning.

For contractors, that has practical consequences:

• Bidding strategy shifts by segment, not by market overall.
• Resource planning — labor, materials, equipment — depends increasingly on which sector a firm serves.
• A single macro forecast may mislead; the divergence itself is the signal.

Basu didn't name the booming or struggling sectors in his remarks. But his core claim is structural: the distribution of economic performance has widened, and construction sits squarely inside that spread.

Why 'more extreme' is the operative phrase

The word choice matters. Basu, who leads economic analysis for one of the industry's major trade associations, is describing intensification, not just imbalance. Sectors that were strong are getting stronger. Sectors that were weak are getting weaker.

That's a divergence story, not a downturn story, and not a boom story either. It's both at once — which is precisely what makes it harder to plan around.

What comes next

Basu's assessment implies the split will keep defining construction's near term. Firms in strong segments should expect the boom to compound; firms in weak segments should expect the pressure to build. Watch which side of the divide your backlog sits on — because, per ABC's chief economist, the two halves are no longer moving together.