ABSTRACT
Construction industry is one of the major contributing sectors of the U.S. economy. Due to COVID-19 pandemic construction industry has witnessed halt and cancellation of ongoing and planned projects. As projects got halted and cancelled many construction companies furloughed or terminated employment contracts of their workers. This sudden termination has been reflected in the monthly employment numbers. This paper presents the employment change in three constituting subsectors of construction industry: building, heavy and civil, and specialty trade due to COVID-19 pandemic. The paper has utilized historical data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to forecast the expected employment numbers in absence of the pandemic. It has been found that due to pandemic the construction employment went down by 5.5 million between March 2020 and December 2020. Additionally, it has been found that the variation of the extent of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of employment on the three subsectors is insignificant. This means that the three subsectors suffered the consequences equally. The outcomes of the paper can be utilized by the policy makers in exploring the broader implications of the construction employment change. It can also be used in subsector specific policy planning purpose. © 2023, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.
ABSTRACT
The construction sector is one of the largest industries that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the COVID-19 outbreak had numerous negative impacts, the pandemic is perceived to have positive impacts on the construction industry such as an increased reliance on innovative construction technologies and methods. Despite the pronounced benefits of offsite construction and its potential to address many uncertainties and challenges experienced by the construction industry, little-to-no previous research has been performed to study the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on offsite construction. To this end, this paper used an integrated methodology to study how the COVID-19 crisis would unfold for offsite construction as well as to examine the offsite construction measures that were taken by companies during the pandemic. First, subcommittees of industry experts were formed to guide the research process. Second, interviews were conducted to get information related to the industry's perceptions on the current and future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on offsite construction. Third, data from business case studies were collected to verify the perceptions of the interviewed experts and the validity of the obtained findings from the interviews. The main findings of this paper showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has raised industry awareness on the importance of leveraging offsite construction technologies and methods in both short and long terms, since the pandemic required companies to seriously plan for further increasing their offsite construction capabilities. This research concluded that the enhanced focus on worker safety due to the pandemic will help accelerate the industry's move to offsite construction methods in the future. Ultimately, this research adds to the body of knowledge by showcasing why and how offsite construction technologies helped the industry adapt and respond to the challenging times during the COVID-19 pandemic and how the outbreak could be a catalyst for an increased reliance on offsite construction methods in the future. © 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought unprecedented impacts (e.g., labor shortage, suspension and cancellation of projects, and disrupted supply and logistics) on the US construction industry. To address challenges caused by the pandemic, it is critical for the construction industry to develop a clear understanding of how the pandemic has affected the industry and how it will change in the future. However, assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on the construction industry is challenging due to the broad influence of the pandemic and the dynamic nature of the industry. The Purdue Index for Construction (Pi-C), which was developed as an indicator based on five dimensions and corresponding metrics to measure the health status of the construction industry, offers an opportunity to understand the impact of the pandemic. In this context, this paper presents a study to reveal the relationship between COVID-19 and the health status of the industry as measured through Pi-C and predict the future trend of the construction industry. This study achieves the objective via the three steps. First, the relationship between the pandemic and Pi-C metrics is identified using the Granger causality test and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Second, multivariable prediction models are developed based on a long short-term memory (LSTM) network - a deep learning algorithm - to predict Pi-C metrics in the future. Third, forecasted Pi-C metrics are integrated into the existing Pi-C structure to analyze the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and predict its trends in 2021-2022. The results revealed that the impacts of the pandemic were conspicuous in two Pi-C dimensions (economy and stability), whereas no significant impacts were observed in the remaining Pi-C dimension (social). In addition, the Pi-C forecasted that there would be no significant adverse impacts on the US construction industry caused by the pandemic until the end of 2022. © 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.