Dive summary:

• A confidence index that consulting firm FMI created and tracks says spirits in the nonresidential construction business are rising from 2012's end, albeit not soaring because the index is where it was 12 months earlier.
• FMI's Nonresidential Construction Index (NRCI) stands at 58.1 for the first quarter of this year, up 2.6 points from the previous quarter's posting, but the company compares trying to get ahead during a slow economic recovery as "like running in knee-deep mud."
• FMI uses a panel of engineering and construction executives to glean what spirits are and what the executives foresee for their businesses, which is better on a case-by-case assessment than they see for the industry as a whole.

From the article:

"Optimistic but not bullish" is the way one panelist described his outlook on hiring for his company in 2013. ...