Construction Productivity Underestimated by Census of Business
The downward trend in U.S. construction productivity is largely the result of mis-categorization by the Census of Business according to a recently published paper.
The downward trend in U.S. construction productivity is largely the result of mis-categorization by the Census of Business according to a recently published
paper .
Much of the construction industry fabricates made-to-order components for construction that the Census of Business considers part of the manufacturing industry. The off-site operations that produce steel, precast concrete and curtainwalls have consistently higher productivity than on-site construction operations.
The distinction is significant to analysts, planners and others in the building industry in understanding apparent declines in productivity that are in contrast to increasing productivity in manufacturing.
The study, authored by researchers Charles Eastman at the Georgia Tech College of Architecture and Rafael Sacks at Technion, looks at production activities for industries with both off-site and on-site components, and compares their productivity with productivity changes over ten years.
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