Growth in the construction industry slowed to a crawl in November, with an ongoing surge in apartment-building the only bright spot, offsetting weakness in other areas.
The Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association performance of construction index (PCI) came in at 50.7 points in November, above the 50 mark that divides positive and negative responses to the questions asked of businesses in the monthly survey.
It was the fourth consecutive reading above 50, but the weakest since July.
Within the four sectors covered by the survey, only apartment-building posted an above-50 result, an extremely strong 69.0.
But house-building (48.0), commercial building (46.3) and engineering construction (46.0) fell below that mark.
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HIA chief economist Harley Dale said the the figures told a familiar story of persistently strong, but not growing, residential construction activity, with no convincing evidence that non-residential construction is starting to recover.
"We need to be seeing evidence of a rebound in the non-residential sectors sooner rather than later," Dr Dale said in his commentary on the figures on Monday.
"Governments could perhaps give some further thought as to how they might assist with that transition."
On a more positive note, the PCI's sub-index for employment in November was 54.5, its fourth consecutive month above the 50 mark, a result Dr Dale said stemmed from the overall expansion of the construction industry.
