MEDICAL CONSTRUCTION STILL SOLID

With the dearth of new construction in the construction industry's mega-markets-office and factory projects, it's easy to get bummed out about the economic health of the construction business as a whole. But some very busy pockets of construction offer some cause to cheer. With $18.6 billion in new construction put-in-place according to the U.S. Census Bureau, construction of private hospital and institutional facilities was up 28.8 percent in November, compared to November 2001. At $5.1 billion in new construction put-in-place, construction of public hospitals in November was up an equally impressive 23.9 percent over November 2001. Now that's the type of medicine this market needs to recover.