Once again, the U.S. economy has hit a crossroads. Even before the current COVID-19 outbreak, the predictions for the coming year were mixed at best.

On the one side, the Association of Equipment Managers (AEM) said that “Steady and solid growth is likely to continue for the construction sector. As the second-largest in the world (behind China), the U.S. construction market is poised for 3.3 percent growth this year, 1.7 percent growth in 2020, and somewhere between 1.5 and 2 percent growth for the next five years.” Then again, the recently released 2020 Dodge Construction Outlook from Dodge Data & Analytics predicted “that total U.S. construction starts will slip to $776 billion in 2020, a decline of 4 percent from the 2019 estimated level of activity.” Read more.