Weak construction activity has been dragging down the economy for a year or more and will keep doing so for a while yet.
Philips said weak construction activity was hurting its lighting division, though LED light sales were up 38 percent as the new technology continues to replace traditional incandescent bulbs.
So yes, housing now might still be in recession conditions, with the pace of new home sales slow and home construction weak, and prices still down by more than 20% nationally from their peak in 2006.
But as weak as housing construction has been since the last quarter of 2008 (see below), over the past ten years we have started about 1.23 million houses a year while adding only about 920, 000 households per year.
It's hard to turn a profit on timber when demand for new homes and construction remains weak.
Limitations on housing construction are weak job growth, tight credit standards for home buyers, and developer financing challenges.
And the other sector that's still weak has been the construction industry.
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Healthcare sales fell at an underlying rate of 1% from a year earlier, while overall lighting sales were flat due to weak demand from the construction sector.
The company is seeing a slowdown in consumer electronics, and housing and construction markets remain weak.
Despite these improved results, new construction activity remains weak and steel prices are on the rise.
Not so long ago, layoffs were concentrated in a few weak sectors: manufacturing, construction, and later mortgage lending.
Commercial real estate markets, especially construction, remained weak.
Construction, a notable weak spot, cut 16, 000 jobs last month.
The construction industry is still very weak, and that's one of the areas where we've still seen job losses instead of job gains.
There was fresh, weak data coming out of the European Union, as construction output declined by 0.4% in November, for an annual drop of 4.7%.
Housing, which has been a drag on the U.S. economy, may remain weak, but Rosen said as far as new home sales and construction goes, the U.S. may be reaching a bottom.
Construction unit sales in Japan hurt by tighter regulations and a weak economy.
These banks have a high share of mortgage lending and are heavily exposed to commercial property and construction lending - which is what has done for them, because Spain's housing market is weak and becoming weaker, and its commercial property sector is a basket case.
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