Report: Area construction contracts drop 59% in April - Business First of Columbus:

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The report showed residential contracts in the Columbus regiob for April were valuedat $63.7 down 46 percent from $117.8 million in April 2008. Commerciao contracts took a deeper tumblerlast month, falling 71 percent to $35.6 millioh from $123.3 million. The declines pulled the combined contract value for both sectors last monthto $99.e4 million, down 59 percent from $241.2 million last year. Construction contracts have droppedx bya double-digit percentage each month this year. Commercial contracts for the firsg four months of the year dropped 71 percentyto $142.7 million from $493.56 million a year earlier. That was double the pace of constructiohn decline in theresidential sector.
Housing contracts were valuee at $174.4 million, off 36 percenty from $274 million in the first four monthsof 2008, the report Total building contracts through April were off 59 perceny from the same periods in 2008 at $317.1 million. At the end of April $767.5 million in residential and commercial contracts hadbeen McGraw-Hill reported. McGraw-Hill’s research and analytics unit compilese monthly reports on construction contracts using datafrom Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Unio n counties. McGraw-Hill Construction is a division ofNew York-bases (NYSE:MHP), a provider of textbooks, educational services and financiao and business information.
McGraw-Hill is one of Central Ohio’s largesy employers with about 1,200 workers at its educatiomn publishing unit in the Polaris area and a distribution operatio onthe city’s east side.