The construction industry employs a massive number of people, and it has a proportionally large impact on the economy. While some of the immediate impact is obvious, it also provides support for other industries in ways that are often surprising.
Fueling Green Growth
Most people want to go green. That has lead to a surge in solar installations and sustainable architecture, and it falls on the construction industry to implement those new designs. The industry profits by doing so, and that does provide jobs to plenty of people, but it also has a big impact on the development of new green technologies.
The architects and engineers that develop sustainable technology can only turn a profit by working with the construction industry in order to install their designs. The money that they make by doing so gives them the funds that they need in order to to work on new inventions. Similarly, the general population only has access to sustainable designs because the construction industry quickly learned how to install them, both in existing structures and in new construction. If that had not happened, the environment would be in significantly worse condition.
Enabling Business
The Internet may be digitizing large parts of the workplace, but businesses still need physical headquarters, warehouses, and retail locations. They also need a great deal of supporting infrastructure, such as strong road networks, in order to function. All of those resources ultimately come from the construction industry, which means that it is responsible for producing the tools that allow nearly every other business in the modern economy to function.
Some businesses also use the construction industry to help experiment with new products or business models. For example, indoor farming is a growing trend, and it depends on modern construction techniques to produce adequate greenhouses. It, and trends like it, could not happen without a large and healthy construction industry that can build experimental structures.
Hiring Services
The construction industry also supports the economy by purchasing goods and services from other businesses. A modern construction project is a highly complex endeavor, which needs a huge number of different materials and the skills of a variety of professionals. The industry is the main client for many of the businesses that provide those things. Most of them do work with other industries as well, but they would not be able to survive without the construction industry serving as their major customer.
Those workers use the money that they get from the construction industry to expand their business or to buy items for personal use, which goes on to fuel other industries. That cements the place of the construction industry in the economy as a whole, and ensures that it has a large impact on the flow of goods and services.