Helping our customers get smarter about market opportunities and the demand for their new and existing products is another way McGraw-Hill Construction demonstrates industry leadership. Our newly released report "The Economy and Construction: Review of Recent Indicators—February 2008" is the latest resource issued by our Research and Analytics team.

Prepared by Robert Murray, MHC's Vice President, Economic Affairs, the report discusses the broad economic backdrop of late 2007/early 2008, as well as the recent indicators affecting the U.S. economy and the construction industry: employment; real GDP; lending conditions; inflation; the Fed's monetary policy; and the recently passed stimulus bill.

In this environment, the report forecasts that the overall level of construction starts in current dollars will fall another 5% to 8% for 2008, after the 11% decline reported for 2007.

For the complete economic indicator report, click here.