Just how bad is it? Many of you know – you are experiencing it on a daily basis. But how bad is it elsewhere? I recently completed a survey of foundation construction activity of members to put some actual figures on the state of the economy.

The good news – I had a record number of respondents for a CFA survey. Forty-eight of our members responded which is over 25% return of current paid members.

The bad news – If that many of you had the time to respond it means you aren’t nearly busy enough; The fact that 48 responses represents more than 25% of our paid members means that membership is off by over 30%; and, worst of all, the figures confirm what most of you already know. Its bad, and getting worse. It’s not bad for everyone everywhere. There are a few pockets within given regions that are performing reasonably well and there is one region of the country – Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois – where the drop in construction activity is much less than in other regions. This is most likely an anomaly due to the fact that these three states are in the heart of corn country, and corn has been at record prices.

I took the respondents and divided them into regions of contiguous states that had some basis for the grouping. The figures are as follows. You can draw your own conclusions. The figures show the reduction in construction activity in a given group of states relative to the base year of 2005.

It is apparent that the lower Midwest is fairing the best. Drops in construction activity in the two Midwest areas were 15% and 28% respectively. The balance of the CFA areas represented had drops in construction activity ranging from 39% to 48%.