Engineering and construction CEOs are cautiously optimistic about the global economy, says PwC

Engineering and construction CEOs are more optimistic this year than in previous years, according to PwC’s 2014 Global CEO Survey. Forty-one percent of respondents expect to grow over the next 12 months, up from 31% last year.

This and other big-picture facts are available in the survey, which provides multiple “snapshots” of the engineering and construction sectors, including growth markets, government impact on the industry, transformative global trends, and concerns about sustainability and climate trends.

Here are some of the snapshots we found the most interesting (read the full report):

50% of CEOs in the engineering and construction sector believe the global economy will improve over the next 12 months; 9% believe it will decline
78% of sector CEOs are concerned about how governments will respond to deficit and debt in the next year—this is the concern that the highest number of engineering and construction CEOs reported worrying about
76% of sector CEOs are worried about high and volatile raw material prices
Concerns about infrastructure gaps are a consistent concern—47% of sector CEOs reported concerns that inadequacy of infrastructure could hurt growth, 50% think that infrastructure think it should be one of their government’s top 3 priorities, and 41% feel that the government is ineffective (as opposed to 33% who believe that the government is effective)
The U.S. topped the list of growth markets, and the Middle East ranked much higher as growth markets for engineering and construction CEOs than for other sectors
Cost reduction heads the list of restructuring activities
69% of sector CEOs believe that technological advances such as the digital economy, Big Data, and social media will be the biggest transformative trend for their businesses in the next year
E&C CEOs are significantly more worried about the availability of key skills in their workforces than are other industries.
89% of E&C CEOs say it’s important for their company to try and reduce their environmental footprint.
59% of E&C CEOs believe that resource scarcity and climate change will transform their business

For more, read the full report.

Founded in 2009 with an initial endowment of $1.9 million, HMC’s nonprofit Designing Futures Foundation (DFF) has donated about $230,000 in its three years of existence, including $105,000 in scholarships to California students. The grants help promising high schoolers with an interest in architecture, design, engineering, education, or healthcare pay for expenses like test preparation services, computers, and college entrance exam fees and tuition. The scholarships can be extended for up to five years of college.