Statistics from the non-profit research board show that privatenon-residential construction was down $659.1 million in L.A. Countyfor the first eight months. The steepest drop in the state has beenin Santa Clara County, down $749.8 million for the first eightmonths.

CIRB figures show that California's total construction activitydipped by $1.51 billion to $42.42 billion, a decline of 3.4%, forthe first eight months of 2002. It attributed most of the declineon the slowdown in the private non-residential sector, which wasdown by $2.497 billion, or 20.7%, during the first eight months.For August, the latest month tallied, total building decreased by$5.6 billion, a drop of 1.6% from July of this year and a declineof 2.4% from August of last year.

But the slide in non-residential construction appears to havebottomed out, according to Ben Bartolotto, director of the CIRB,who said he expects a turnaround, provided the economy improves. Henoted that despite the drop in total construction for August,building actually increased in the non-residential sector on amonth-to-month basis: Nonresidential building activity for Augustincreased by $1.298 billion, up 14.6% from July, but down 24.8%from August 2001. The figures for private non-residentialconstruction do not include public works construction such asgovernment building and heavy construction.