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.
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