Construction growth expected in the next year

By Emma Peterson. 

After several years of uncertainty, FMI analysts see encouraging signs driven by infrastructure investment and commercial expansion. 

A lot has happened in the last few years that has destabilized our market and industry, but that doesn’t mean that growth isn’t still happening. In fact, FMI Corporation’s 2026 Q2 North America Construction and Engineering Outlook Report indicates that the industry is still positioned for growth, driven by power infrastructure, data center demand and steady nonresidential activity. To learn more about this prediction, Heidi J. Ellsworth brought Paul Trombitas, a partner at FMI, onto an episode of Contractor Outlook™. 

Paul kicked off the episode by sharing some background on how FMI makes their Outlook reports and the results from the last couple of years, saying, “One of the biggest parts of our report is our overall growth measurement. It’s important to note that we look at construction over the lifecycle of a project, so it's allocated during the year that it's put in place... Looking at the last few years, we saw growth in the 2023-2024 year, then 2024-2025 was not a great year and then 2025-2026 was shown to be flat.”  

The good news is that Paul and FMI team predict that the growth of the market will pick back up again as we head towards 2027. He explained, “When we look at residential, we anticipate right around a 4.7% growth rate. Not as strong as 2025 but still picking up. As for non-residential, it’s looking at a stronger growth rate closer to 6%.” What is driving the higher growth in non-residential? Paul shared some insight, saying, “Data centers are obviously the big shiny object in the room, and that segment will continue to grow. Matching it, power is also a big segment, as well as manufacturing space, healthcare facilities and warehouse development.” 

The takeaway from all this? Keep your head up. It’s been a rough few years for the industry, with labor instability, global geopolitical shifts, regulation changes and more, but there is still work and growth ahead.  

Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recording of it to hear more insights and predictions FMI Corporation’s 2026 Q2 North America Construction and Engineering Outlook Report.