June 14, 2009 - Statistics Canada data for the first quarter of 2009 indicates that the construction sector fared better than industry as a whole, at least in terms of industrial capacity utilization rates.

Industries continued to reduce their rate of capacity utilization in the first quarter of 2009, operating at 69.3% of production capacity, down 5.6 percentage points from the previous quarter. It was the first time that industrial capacity use fell below the 70% level since the start of the data series in 1987.

The construction sector operated at 71.8% of its capacity, a 3.5 percentage point drop from the previous quarter. Lower activities in residential building construction and engineering and repair work were behind the decrease.