NAICS 444 dealers get an April boost, as usual

The Advance Monthly Sales report, released Friday morning, shows sales at businesses classified as building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers -- the broad industry category of NAICS 444 — jumped significantly in March. 

That jump is a major highlight oof the latest Quikrete Industry Dashboard.

On an unadjusted basis, NAICS 444 sales increased to $42.6 billion, up from $33.9 billion in February, an increase of 25.7 percent.

Big gains from February to March are the norm for this category in monthly sales report. Last year, NAICS sales increased 32.8 percent over the same period. 

Data for NAICS 44413 dealers, the subset of Hardware stores, is not available for March. February numbers are available, showing an increase compared to last year, but a decline from February, on an unadjusted basis.

Elsewhere on the Dashboard, the American Automobile Association’s measure of the average price for a gallon of regular is $3.66. That's down from $4.07 a year ago, and up from $3.47 a month ago.

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Coming next: Housing starts for March will be released Tuesday, April 18. In February, residential construction showed a turn upward after trending down for months.