U.S. builders trimmed activity for a second straight month in February, pushing construction spending down by the largest amount in seven months. There was widespread weakness with spending on home building, office construction and government projects all dropping.

The Commerce Department reported yesterday that construction spending fell 1.1 percent in February after a drop of 0.8 percent in January which was revised down from an initial estimate of a decline of 0.1 percent.

With the back-to-back declines, construction spending stood at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of  $808.9 billion in February, just 6.1 percent above a low hit in March 2011 and about one-third lower than the high hit during the housing boom.

The construction weakness over the past two months underscored that the nation’s construction industry is still struggling to emerge from the 2007-2009 recession, a decline that was triggered by a collapse in housing following an unsustainable boom in that sector.

Analysts said that the weakness in construction would have been even more pronounced if it had not been for the mild winter which meant more building activity than usual in January and February. They predicted a modest improvement in construction in coming months.

"Unless there is another hiccup in the nation’s economic momentum, construction spending data will come to reflect the improvement in the broader economy that observers noted during the past half year," said Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors. (AP)