Architecture Billings Index continues to stabilize but remains healthy

Architecture firms reported increasing demand for design services in June, according to a new report today from The American Institute of Architects (AIA).

The ABI score for June was 53.2. While this score is down slightly from May’s score of 53.5, it still indicates moderately strong business conditions overall (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings from the prior month). Also in June, both the new project inquiries and design contracts indexes moderated from May but continued to show growth, posting scores of 58.2 and 52.2 respectively.

“Ongoing project activity at architecture firms as well as new work coming online remains strong, pushing project backlogs up to seven months on average nationally,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “In spite of heavy workloads, employment at architecture firms has stabilized, suggesting that adding new employees is becoming even more challenging as the building construction sector continues to recover.”

Key ABI highlights for June include:

Regional averages: West (57.8); Midwest (54.8); South (51.5); Northeast (48.7)
Sector index breakdown: institutional (53.5); mixed practice (52.8); multi-family residential (52.6); commercial/industrial (52.5)

The Architectural Billings Index measures the general sentiment of U.S. architecture firms about the health of the construction market by measuring 1) design billings and 2) design contracts. Any score above 50 means that, among the architecture firms surveyed, more firms than not reported seeing increases in design work vs. the previous month.