Construction continued its steady, positive growth in May.

Construction spending continued its strong performance in May, rising 7.0 percent from last year and 0.9 percent from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $830.0 billion.

For the first five months of 2012, spending is $310.5 billion, a 9.4 percent increase from the same period in 2011.

Other details from the Census Bureau report included:

• At $560.4 billion, private construction spending was 1.6 percent above April, with residential construction and nonresidential construction posting respective monthly increases of 3.0 percent and 0.4 percent.
• Residential construction is 61 percent below its early 2006 peak, but up 17 percent from the recent low, and nonresidential spending is 28 percent below the peak in January 2008 but up about 30 percent from the recent low.
• On the public side, construction spending was $269.6 billion, 0.4 percent below April; education construction and highway construction were also down by 3.0 and 0.5 percent, respectively.

Construction has been on a bit of a roll lately, and May’s data would seem to continue that trend.