Contractor backlog drops to 8.1 months in October as firms without data center work fall behind

The reading comes from an ABC member survey taken Oct. 20 to Nov. 3 and is 0.3 months lower than a year earlier. Backlog has not held this low with any consistency since last winter, ABC chief economist Anirban Basu said.

Nearly all of the drop came from contractors outside the data center boom. Their backlog fell from 8.3 months in September to 7.6, while firms with data center contracts went from 11.3 to 11.5 months; most of those firms bring in more than $100 million a year, Basu said. According to Construction Dive, the gap between the two groups was close to four months in October, against three a month earlier.

By sector, infrastructure backlog dropped from 9.4 to 8.7 months, its lowest since May 2025, and commercial and institutional work lost a full month to 8.0. Heavy industrial was the exception: its backlog climbed to the highest level in 15 months.

Readings in ABC's Construction Confidence Index also diverged. The profit margin reading rose while the sales and staffing readings fell, though all three stayed above 50, the level that signals contractors expect growth in the coming six months. Basu pointed to costlier materials and borrowing, and said about 1 contractor in 4 still sees margins narrowing.