Hawai‘i Construction Companies Say Revenues and Profits Are Up

In this section of the BOSS Survey, we focus on companies that said most of their revenue came from the construction industry; 92 businesses qualified to respond in this section.

The BOSS Performance Index is based on each companies’ revenue, profits and staffing. The construction companies did slightly better in the index overall than other companies surveyed because they reported better revenue and profit results on average.

Construction company representatives were asked: How did your revenue change over the past year?

The construction industry representatives were asked to describe how much of their current business came from the private sector and how much from government spending. Those results were averaged out:

These percentages were about midway for similar surveys conducted every two years since 2001. The high for private sector work was spring 2021 (80.5%) and the low was 2011 (66.6%).

The proportion of government work was higher on O‘ahu (28%) than on the Neighbor Islands (13%).

Is Your Current Work More or Less Profitable

In this section of the study construction industry representatives were asked about the overall profitability (before taxes) of their projects during this past year

What About Your Project Backlogs?

Construction industry representatives were asked about their backlog of projects, if at all, over the course of the last year.

Is Financing Getting Easier or Harder?

Those surveyed were asked for their thoughts regarding the availability of financing for construction projects over the past two years.

Two-Year Projections

Representatives were asked what their expectations were for private sector projects for their companies in the next two years.

Next, they were asked what their expectations were for their public sector projects for their companies in the next two years.

The respondents were asked to consider the local construction industry as a whole and to forecast changes in these five sectors of construction. Here are the percentages of respondents who said there would be more activity and spending in these segments over the next two years.

Are Your Construction Costs Up, Down or Steady?

Industry representatives were asked if their constructions costs rose over the last two years. The percentage that said yes was the highest ever in surveys every two years going back to 2013.

Construction firms who indicated their costs have increased over the past two years were asked by how much.

They said their costs went up by this much:

*Highest percentage ever recorded for this category; next highest was 28% in 2007

How Is the Permitting Process?

Respondents were asked if the permitting process in the counties where they operate has improved in the last few years. We compared this spring’s results to when we last asked the question.

Read other parts of this BOSS Survey 

Part 1: Is a Recession Coming? Here’s What Hawai‘i’s Business Leaders Say.
Part 2: How Are Hawai‘i Companies Responding to Inflation and ESG/DEI Demands?