Quikrete Industry Dashboard: BLDR up the charts

The latest version of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard, HBSDealer’s weekly compendium of major macroeconomic metrics, reveals a steady-as-she-goes unemployment rate of 3.4 percent.

Also, the Stock Roundup shows BLDR separating itself from the field  when comparing monthly annual gains. BLDR is up 55 percent for the year, and up 22 percent for the month.

On Friday morning, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the national unemployment rate changed little in general, and little specifically in the construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade and retail sectors.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 253,000 in April, the bureau reported.

The trade association Associated Builders and Contractors

Chief Economist Anirban Basu of Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade association, offered this analysis of the numbers: “Put simply, the demand for workers remains significantly above the supply,” he said “This is especially true for contractors, a majority of whom intend to increase their staffing levels over the next six months.”

Elsewhere on the Quikrete Industry Dashboard, gas prices are up slightly for the month and down significantly for the year. The latest tally from the American Automobile Association for a gallon of regular, on average, was $3.57. That compares to $3.51 last month, and $4.23 a year ago.

The charts for total housing starts, single-family housing starts and existing home sales appear to show plenty of room for improvement after several months of declines. February and March are above what appears to be a trough in January, but only time will tell if the upward trend continues.

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Coming next: The week of May 8 will be a quiet one for industry data. However, NAICS 444 sales will drop May 16, followed on successive days by housing starts and existing home sales. Also on May 16, The Home Depot will report its much-anticipated first quarter results.