Three public series give a regular reading on construction work around Conshohocken. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts construction jobs in Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties every month. The Census Bureau counts the new housing units that Montgomery County’s municipalities authorize with building permits, and publishes the full year each spring. Material prices come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly producer price indexes, which are national.
In the latest figures, checked October 3, 2026, the three counties had 59,500 construction jobs in August 2026, 2.1% fewer than in August 2025, and the county authorized 2,231 new housing units in 2025. Producer prices for construction materials in August 2026 were 10.1% above their level a year earlier.
Construction jobs
The Bureau of Labor Statistics runs the Current Employment Statistics survey, a monthly count of jobs on employer payrolls. It publishes a series for the Montgomery County-Bucks County-Chester County metropolitan division, a BLS area made of those three counties. The series for this area combines construction with mining and logging, and BLS titles it “mining, logging, and construction.”
The August 2026 figure is preliminary, and BLS marks it that way in its data. It counts 59,500 jobs, not seasonally adjusted, which is 1,300 fewer than in August 2025. Each month from December 2025 through August 2026 came in below the same month a year earlier.
| Month | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55,200 | 54,100 | -1,100 |
| February | 55,300 | 51,900 | -3,400 |
| March | 57,000 | 55,500 | -1,500 |
| April | 58,700 | 58,500 | -200 |
| May | 59,900 | 58,300 | -1,600 |
| June | 60,200 | 59,300 | -900 |
| July | 60,600 | 59,800 | -800 |
| August | 60,800 | 59,500 | -1,300 |
The figures are not seasonally adjusted, meaning the regular rise and fall through the year is left in, so compare a month with the same month of an earlier year. Winter months run lower: February 2026 counted 51,900 jobs and August 59,500.
The annual average for 2025 was 58,600 jobs. That is the highest annual average in the series, which starts in 1990. The lowest since 2000 came in 2010, at 44,600.
For the wider region, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro area counted 128,300 mining, logging and construction jobs in August 2026, not seasonally adjusted, 1.0% fewer than in August 2025. FRED lists October 20, 2026 as the next release date for both series.
Housing permits
The Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey covers new privately owned residential construction. Each permit-issuing borough and township reports the housing units it authorizes, and the Census Bureau adds them up by county. Montgomery County’s municipalities authorized 2,231 units in 2025, 10.4% fewer than the 2,490 they authorized in 2024. The Census Bureau released the final 2025 figures on May 14, 2026.
Montgomery County authorized 2,231 new housing units in 2025
New privately owned housing units authorized by building permits, Montgomery County, Pa., per year
Over the 36 years in the series, the county’s total ranged from 800 units in 2009 to 3,800 in 1998. The 10 years from 2016 through 2025 averaged about 2,020 units a year. The 1990s averaged about 3,200.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission republishes the Census counts by building type and by municipality. Its tables run through 2024. That year the county’s 2,490 units split into 1,877 single-family units, 72 units in buildings with two to four units, and 541 units in buildings with five or more. Conshohocken Borough authorized 11 units in 2024, all single-family.
Because the survey counts new homes and apartments, it leaves out commercial buildings and work on existing buildings. The Montgomery County Planning Commission covers those in its own reports, including a quarterly construction report and an annual report on nonresidential construction, listed on its publications page.
Materials prices
A producer price index tracks the prices that U.S. producers charge for their output. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes indexes for single products, such as steel mill products, and for bundles, such as the goods that go into nonresidential construction.
| Index | Series ID | August 2025 | August 2026 | Change over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction materials (special index) | WPUSI012011 | 341.5 | 375.9 | 10.1% |
| Inputs to nonresidential construction, goods | WPUIP2312001 | 166.1 | 180.7 | 8.8% |
| Inputs to residential construction, goods | WPUIP2311001 | 323.8 | 349.0 | 7.8% |
| Steel mill products | WPU1017 | 308.8 | 381.2 | 23.4% |
| Lumber | WPU081 | 266.3 | 286.6 | 7.6% |
| Ready-mix concrete | WPU1333 | 386.4 | 395.2 | 2.3% |
Steel mill products rose 23.4% over the year, the largest change in the table. Ready-mix concrete rose 2.3%. BLS says all of its producer price data can be revised for up to four months after first publication, so the values for May through August 2026 can still change. The next release, with September 2026 data, is scheduled for October 15, 2026.
These indexes are national. They do not break out southeastern Pennsylvania, and they measure what producers charge, which is not the same as a supplier’s delivered price to your job.
How to use these numbers
- When a supplier raises a quote, compare the increase with the index for that product over the same months. A bigger gap is a reason to ask for the supplier’s own cost basis.
- When a bid will be held open for months, check the indexes for the materials that carry the most weight in it. A single product can move much more than the construction materials index as a whole, as steel mill products did in the year to August 2026.
- For the residential pipeline in a particular township, the county permit total is too broad. Use the planning commission’s reports and the municipality’s planning commission agendas.
- For national construction data, see Construction Metrics.
Every series in this guide can be pulled into Excel or Power BI from FRED with the series ID shown in the sources below.