­­­Construction Put-in-Place, (CPIP): Total U.S. construction spending continued to perform well in August 2023, especially in the private sector. Census Bureau non-seasonally adjusted (NSA), constant dollar CPIP data showed that August’s three month total (3MT) construction expenditures grew by 3.3% year on year (y/y) to 279.8 billion. On a 12MT basis, private expenditures decreased by 4.0% y/y.

Currency Report: The trade-weighted U.S. Broad Dollar Index posted a reading of 120.379 in August, up 1.51% m/m, reversing trend after steadily decreasing for two months. This index value is down 1.67% on a year on year (y/y) basis. Month over month, we saw the Euro strengthen vs. the USD in August.

U.S. Manufacturing Capacity Utilization: Manufacturing capacity utilization (MCU) reached 77.8% in August 2023, +0.03% month on month (m/m). On a year on year (y/y) comparison, the MCU was a modest -1.89%.

Architectural Billings Index: August’s 2023 national Architectural Billings Index of 48.1 was down 1.9 points from July’s 50.0, which is below the expansionary zone, (>50). U.S. architecture firms specializing in multifamily residential and Institutional all reported a decrease in design activity in August.

Employment by Industry (U.S.): In August 2023, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 156.4 million (M) – an increase of 187,000 (+0.1%) month on month (m/m). When compared to August 2022, total employment is up by 2.0% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest monthly gain in the heavy and civil engineering construction sector with a growth of 0.6% m/m.

ISM Non-Manufacturing Index: The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index increased by 1.8 points month on month (+3.4% m/m) to 54.5 in August 2023.