ABI March 2026: Architecture firm billings approach growth

Architecture firm billings were essentially flat in March, although economic concerns linger

 The AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index® (ABI) score was 49.8 for the month, meaning that the share of firms that reported increasing firm billings was essentially equal to the share that reported decreasing billings (a score above 50 means that the majority of firms saw increasing billings, while a score below 50 means that the majority saw decreasing billings). This is the closest that the ABI score has been to 50 since the first quarter of 2023. In addition, inquiries into new projects increased further in March, and backlogs at firms rose to an average of 6.6 months, the highest level since December 2023. Backlogs increased most significantly at firms with a multifamily residential specialization (from 5.4 months in December to 6.2 months in March), while they held steady at 8.2 months at firms with an institutional specialization. However, the value of newly signed design contracts decreased for the 25th consecutive month in March, and the decline accelerated from February. Although firm billings seem poised to turn positive for the first time in three years, the ongoing conflict in Iran and other broader economic stresses may prevent that from happening.

Firms located in the West reported a modest increase in billings in March, the first since December 2024. However, business conditions remained softer across all other regions, particularly in the Northeast. On the other hand, firms of all specializations except mixed reported small increases in billings this month. Firms with a multifamily residential specialization have seen the largest turnaround from particularly weak conditions in early 2025.

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Despite improving payrolls, inflation grew sharply in March

Business conditions in the broader economy were mixed in March, as the impact of the conflict in Iran came into sharper focus. Employment bounced back as nonfarm payrolls grew by 178,000 in March after shedding 133,000 jobs in February. Construction employment added 26,000 positions in that period, although growth remains flat on a year-over-year basis. Architectural services employment grew by 200 positions in February (the most recent data available) and is up by 2,700 positions from one year ago

However, inflation rose sharply in March, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increasing by 0.9%, following a 0.3% increase in February. Inflation was up by 3.3% on an annual basis this month, up from 2.4% in February. Most notably, energy prices spiked by 10.9% in March, with gasoline prices rising by a staggering 21.2%. In addition, shelter prices rose by 0.3% during the month.

Firm leaders track a variety of project benchmarks that are integral to business decision-making at their firm

For this month’s special practice questions, we asked firm leaders about business at their firm, including project benchmarks that they track and recent changes to project design phases. Nearly all responding firm leaders (99%) reported tracking at least one project benchmark measure. The top measures that firm leaders report tracking include fees (79%), design hours by phase (66%), project type (65%), cost of construction (65%), budget vs. actual (63%), construction cost per square foot (61%), and fee percent (51%). Just 3% of firm leaders said that these benchmarks are not integral to their business decision-making, while 50% said they are somewhat integral, and 47% said they are highly integral.

Overall, 97% of responding firm leaders reported that they still work within traditional design phases (i.e., schematic design -> design development -> construction documents -> bidding and negotiation -> construction administration), with little variation by firm size or specialization. Firms working within traditional design phases reported some changes in the average length of time for each project design phase over the last five years. One third of respondents indicated that the design development phase is now shorter, while 35% reported that the construction documents phase is now shorter. Conversely, more than six in 10 respondents (61%) indicated that the construction administration phase is now longer than it was five years ago. More than half of respondents (57%) indicated that the length of the bidding and negotiation phase has not changed, although 2% indicate that they no longer offer that phase at all.

At the small share of firms that indicated that they no longer work within traditional design phases, 50% indicated that is because they have combined phases of work, while 30% reported that technology has changed their workflows, shifting a project’s phases of design, 20% that they have added new phases of work, and 10% that they no longer follow this linear path and are doing work non-sequentially now.

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This month, Work-on-the-Boards participants are saying:

• “Busy on the market rate side of apartments; more coming up for RFP/concept work.”—45-person firm in the South, multifamily residential specialization
• “Everything goes on hold nonstop; owners are afraid of world conditions.”—60-person firm in the West, commercial/industrial specialization
• “Business in the Northeast generally remains soft. We are getting a fair amount of inquiries for our religious work, but multifamily residential work is very slow, and work in higher education involves only very small projects.”—38-person firm in the Northeast, institutional specialization
• “Economic uncertainty is becoming a problem for our clients. We had two projects go on hold.”—11-person firm in the Midwest, mixed specialization