Dive Brief:

• The Architectural Billings Index (ABI) for April came in a little higher than March's number – 49.6 compared with 48.8 – but less pessimism among firms nationally is not the same thing as optimism because billings were still down.
• The American Institute of Architects has added a new measure, however, for design contracts, and that debuted at 54.6, which suggests billings will rise as work on those contracts begins.
• The ABI has long been touted as a nine-to-12-month leading indicator for construction work, and the new contract measure is expected to be a leading indicator for the billings.

Dive Insight:

The ABI was up in the South, but down for firms in the Northeast, Midwest and West. The composite number also was pulled down by a fall-off in institutional work that outweighed slightly increased billings in the categories the AIA calls multifamily residential, commercial/industrial and mixed practice.