The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Economic Policy has released findings from an analysis examining the construction manufacturing spending uptick in the wake of the Invest in America Agenda.
Since the end of 2021, and passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and the CHIPS Act, real manufacturing construction spending has doubled.
Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Eric Van Nostrand, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomics Tara Sinclair and Special Assistant for Economic Policy Samarth Gupta authored the examination.
Key findings, according to the analysis, include the boom is primarily driven by construction for computer, electronic, and electrical manufacturing, which represents a small share of manufacturing construction over the past few decades, but now a standard as a dominant component; manufacturing construction is one element of a broader increase in domestic non-residential construction spending, in addition to new building for public and private infrastructure following the IIJA; and the manufacturing surge has not crowded out other types of construction spending.
The Office of Economic Policy has noted while it can be difficult to compare granular data across countries, the rise in construction manufacturing appears to be uniquely American and not mirrored in other advanced economies.