CE Barometer March 2013: Spring upswing

March saw a seasonal swing to the positive for the CE Barometer, with contractors across Europe reporting a pronounced up-tick in work compared to the previous month. The sector remained optimistic about the future, but still said that activity levels were lower than 12 months ago.

It was the first month since June last year that respondents to the survey returned a positive overall response about month-on-month activity. An overall positive balance of +13.7% of respondents said their workload was higher in March than in February. The balance figure is the percentage of positive responses, minus the number of negative ones.

Sentiment about the future was also strong, with a balance of +20% saying they expected activity levels to be higher in a year’s time than now. Although this was down from February’s result of +29.5%, and January’s +25.8%, it was still a strong response.

However, overall activity levels were still lower than a year ago, with a negative balance of -13.7% saying that they were busier a year ago than now.

Despite this result, the CE Climate – an overall measure of confidence based on all question results – moved further into positive territory, to +6.7%, and improvement on February’s +1.2% figure, and a contrast to the negativity that had prevailed from June last year until January.

Take part

The survey, which takes just a one minute to complete, is open to all construction professionals working in Europe. The CE Barometer survey is open from the 1st to the 15^th of each month on our website. Full information can be found at www.cebarometer.eu