Is U.S. construction spending down? What the September 2026 numbers show

Yes. U.S. construction spending fell 1.9% in September 2026, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,186.1 billion, the Census Bureau reported Monday. That's 2.7% below September 2025. For the first nine months of the year, spending totaled $1,649.6 billion, down 2.9% from the same stretch of 2025.

The headline hides a split, though. Almost all of the decline is residential.

Where the drop came from

Private residential alone fell 5.5% in the month, to $848.8 billion. Nonresidential, the work most commercial GCs and trade contractors depend on, is the part still growing.

On the public side, spending was essentially flat. Educational spending was $113.1 billion, virtually unchanged, and highway spending was $149.2 billion, down 0.3%.

These are preliminary numbers. Census revises each month, and August was revised in this release. The next update is due Dec 1.

What it means for project requirements

A softer overall market tends to mean tighter bids and more competition for nonresidential work. That can bring new names onto your jobs: trade contractors you haven't worked with before, bidding into a segment that's still growing.

New relationships are where insurance gaps hide. Before a new contractor mobilizes:

1. Check its COI against your project requirements, line by line, not just for a valid policy.
2. Ask for the additional insured and primary and noncontributory endorsements, not just the certificate.
3. Track expiration dates from day one, so coverage doesn't lapse mid-project.

Forsured checks each contractor COI against the coverage a project actually requires, for the life of the job.