Engineering Influence from ACEC

Welcome to ACEC’s March economic update. Each month, ACEC’s Erin McLaughlin analyzes the latest industry data and provides insights for the engineering and design industry. 

Here are the 5 things you need to know:

Number 1: Engineering and design revenues reached $100 billion last quarter, an all-time high, and marked the sixth straight month of growth following the pandemic dip.

Number 2: Total design and construction spending was up more than 8% this January, compared to the same time last year. The category remains driven by private residential spending which is up more than 13 % and private non-residential up more than 7%.

Number 3: Inflation is anticipated to remain higher than previously predicted, according to a new National Association for Business Economics survey. 30% of respondents named monetary policy missteps as the greatest downside risk.

Number 4 :In the same survey, the vast majority respondents suggested a wage spiral is something to keep an eye on. A wage spiral is the economic term for price increases due to higher wages. 77% of respondents think a wage spiral is either already occurring or will be a major risk in 2022.

Number 5: During a report to Congress this month, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he would propose an interest rate increase of a quarter-percentage-point, which he will suggest at the upcoming Fed meetings. This increase is less than analysts anticipated. Chairman Powell acknowledged difficulties coming out of the pandemic, saying the Fed would avoid “adding uncertainty to what is already an extraordinarily challenging and uncertain moment.”

Those are your top 5 items.

For a deeper dive, check out the full video on YouTube and all of ACEC’s popular Private Industry Briefs.

And mark your calendars for April when the ACEC private markets team will hold a symposium discussing the health care, science and technology markets in Boston, Mass.

To learn more about ACEC’s full slate of private market offerings visit our website at ACEC.org.

Joining us on the program is Dr. Rick Huijbregts, who recently joined Stantec to lead the firm's global Smart Cities Initiative.

Stantec is a leader in Smart Cities, which is a fast-growing sector with the Design Services Industry, and Dr. Huijbregts is here to share his views on where the sector is right now and where it may go.

Click here for more information about Stantec's Smart Cities Initiative

Today we’re talking about the red-hot Mergers & Acquisitions market in the engineering industry with Steve Gido, a principal at ROG + Partners, which provides corporate advisory services for firms in the Design Services industry.

Steve recently presented a top-notch ACEC online class on the current state of the M&A market, looking at both larger economic trends and the individual firm issues, and I recommend that you check it out. For today’s discussion we’re going to talk about some of the key points that he addressed in that class.

Click here for the ACEC online class on the current state of the M&A market in engineering.

On March 30 & 31, ACEC will hold its newly re-imagined Business Development & Marketing Forum in Atlanta, GA.  We sat down with Diana Alexander to discuss her work to revitalize this important event and discuss its format, agenda and content.  Learn more about the event here: https://program.acec.org/bdm-2022

As a service to our members, our Private Market Resources team produces monthly economic updates for the A/E industry.  We offer an in-depth report on YouTube, and a summary of our report on the podcast.  Visit our Private Market Resources page for past updates and our industry-specific Private Market Briefs.

As we celebrate Engineer's Week 2022, we were pleased to welcome Simil Raghavan from EngineerGirl.org, a website dedicated to attracting more girls and young women into the engineering field.  EngineerGirl has been around for 20 years and offers a number of opportunities for engineering executives to engage with girls in middle school and high school to interest them in a career in engineering.  Learn more here: www.engineergirl.org.

The ACEC Research Institute's Joe Bates joined the program to take a closer look at the Institute's newly released Engineering Business Sentiment Study for Q1 2022. The new report, which updates the previous survey released in October 2021 shows there is extreme optimism among engineering firm leaders about their firms' finances and the the engineering and design industry as a whole.  The same cannot be said about their outlook on the U.S. economy, which is a source of pessimism due to rising inflation and the labor shortage.  Hot button topics among firm leaders continue to be project backlog and the talent shortage.  Read the entire report here: https://programs.acec.org/impact-report-21/ https://programs.acec.org/impact-report-21/

We were honored to be joined by Raj Arora, CEO of Jensen Hughes to discuss his firm's focus on ESG throughout its diverse set of practice areas.  

Jensen Hughes is the global leader in engineering, consulting and technology that make our world safe, secure and resilient. Worldwide, the firms is recognized most widely for its leadership in fire protection engineering – a legacy of responsibility Jensen Hughes has advanced with honor and pride since 1939. 

In addition to fire protection, Jensen Hughes excels in other areas critical to advancing safety, security and resiliency – these include accessibility consulting, risk and hazard analysis, process safety, forensic investigations, security, and emergency management as well as digital innovation across many of its services. The firm serves all markets from Government, Healthcare, Science, and Technology to Energy, Mission Critical and Transportation. Jensen Hughes employs 1400+ colleagues across the world and performed 22,000 projects in 100 countries last year.

ACEC and FIDIC North America are launching new webinar series exploring integrity in the Americas. The first session will take place on Thursday, February 17 at 12:00 ET.

Attendees will learn about the successful implementation of Integrity Management on projects funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), including strategies to implement integrity in an accountable manner at the agency level, at the national program level, and within the parent investment or donor organization.

On today’s podcast, FIDIC Integrity Management Committee Chair Richard Stump of RS&H, Inc. leads a discussion on a recent Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) program in Liberia that developed and implemented an anti-fraud and corruption (AFC) Action Plan and other protocols to support the program’s integrity.

Participating in the podcast are:

Christopher Williams, Senior Director for Anti-Fraud and Corruption, Millennium Challenge Corporation

Tshaka E. Dennis, former Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Millennium Challenge Account – Liberia

James Pierre, Senior Associate at Pierre, Tweh and Associates Law Firm in Monrovia, Liberia. Former General Counsel of Millennium Challenge Account - Liberia (MCA-Liberia)

Click here to learn more about the February 17 webinar and to register.

On this episode of "Get to Know Your ExCom," we welcome Hawai'i's Janice Marsters, who will assume the role of Vice Chair at the upcoming ACEC Annual Convention and legislative Summit this May.

Janice Marsters, PE, PhD, is a Senior Principal at Haley & Aldrich, Inc. and manages the firm’s Hawai‘i/Pacific operations. She has been active in ACEC’s Risk Management Committee for many years, including three years as Chair. Dr. Marsters has served as Board Member, President, and twice as National Director for ACEC Hawai‘i, and spearheaded their legislative activities for more than 20 years.