Dive Brief:

• The U.S. average work backlog for all nonresidential construction — the Construction Backlog Index tracked by Associated Builders and Contractors — was at 8.2 months in the third quarter of this year, matching the second quarter but also masking variations by region and by industry sector.
• Commercial and institutional work was up, but infrastructure and industrial had less in the pipeline.
• Regionally, the South's backlog was up from the second quarter, but the Northeast, Middle States and West were all down.

Dive Insight:

ABC concludes that any growth is good growth and that things will pick up after the first quarter of 2014, assuming the federal government can get its fiscal house in order. The big-number CBI was up 2.8% from the equivalent quarter of 2012, though the regions split, with two up and two down. ABC noted that big firms, those with $100 million or more in work annually, have been doing the best in the recovery because they can move quickly on opportunities, but their backlog was down in Q3.