FMI Releases 2026 North American Engineering and Construction Industry Overview

FMI Corporation, a leading provider of consulting and investment banking services to the built environment, released the 2026 North American Engineering and Construction Industry Overview today. The report provides a comprehensive forecast for a broad range of construction and engineering segments in the U.S. and Canada for 2026.

FMI expects construction spending to end 2026 up 1% from 2025, reflecting a market where growth remains selective rather than broad-based. While overall activity continues, performance is diverging meaningfully by sector, with public and infrastructure-related work providing stability as several private categories remain under pressure.

“Leaders are being forced to make sharper choices about where to compete and how much risk to take on,” said Chris Daum, President and CEO of FMI. “The market is supporting certain sectors and structures more than others, and performance in 2026 will depend on how well firms align their capacity and execution with those realities.”

Key highlights from the report include:

• Total U.S. construction put in place is forecast to end 2025 down 1% from 2024. 
• In 2025, top-performing segments included sewage and waste disposal, water supply, conversation and development and religious structures (largely driven by adaptive reuse activity).
• Nonbuilding structures are expected to lead growth across FMI’s three core tracked areas, rising 4%, as power, water and environmental projects move forward with already-committed funding.
• Data center construction, a subset of offices, remains the clear growth engine across all nonresidential building segments, increasing 35% compared to 2024 levels.

To learn more, download the full report here.