BUSINESS MEMO: STATE CONSTRUCTION DOWN

Missouri's November construction activity was down more than 30 percent from November 1996.

November totals were at $298,378,000, compared to the $458,175,000 during November 1996, according to the F.W. Dodge Division of McGraw-Hill, an authority on the construction market. Dodge, which issues monthly totals in its Dodge Report, also publishes Sweet's Catalog Files.

The state's November nonresidential construction, which includes commercial, manufacturing, educational, religious, administrative, recreational, hotel, dormitory and other buildings, was $89,445.000, about half of the $178,150,000 in November 1996.

Residential construction, which includes one- and two-family houses and apartments, for the month was $153,798,000, down 15 percent from the $181,362,000 in November 1996.

Nonbuilding construction, which includes streets, highways, bridges, river and harbor developments, airports and a few other projects, was also down in November, at $55,135,000, compared to the $98,663,000 during the same month a year ago.

Construction is down 8 percent for the first 11 months of 1997, at $5,267,839,000, down from the $5,734,849,000 of a year ago.

Residential construction for the year is down 6 percent, to $2.3 billion, from $2.4 billion a year ago. Eleven-month totals for nonresidential construction is $1.9 billion, down 11 percent from $2.2 billion during the same time a year ago. Nonbuilding was down 9 percent, from $1 billion in 1996 to $996.4 million through November of this year.