Dive Brief:

• Construction material prices remained unchanged between September and October and rose 0.5% between October 2015 and October 2016, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Wednesday.

• Although prices didn't increase month to month, October marked the greatest year-over-year price gain since November 2014, according to the ABC. 

• Four of 11 input price categories dropped between September and October: iron and steel; softwood lumber; prepared asphalt and tar roofing and siding products; and steel mill products. The remaining seven categories saw prices rise or remain unchanged last month. 

Dive Insight:

ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu said the year-over-year price increase is "part of a larger inflation story," as falling oil prices have kept the focus away from other inflationary pressures. Now that fuel prices have stabilized, inflation is emerging as a concern.

Combined with ever-increasing employment costs, contractors now must deal with higher material prices cutting into their margins. In the ABC's Construction Confidence Index for the first half of 2016, confidence fell slightly from the second half of 2015 due largely to the labor shortage and rising material prices. 

Higher wages have been one result of the ongoing construction labor shortage, as employers are upping pay to attract and retain skilled labor. The Associated General Contractors of America reported earlier this month that average hourly earnings in construction rose 3.2% between October 2015 and October 2016 — almost 10% higher than the average across all private sector industries.

However, Basu said in a release, "a still sputtering global economy will help put a lid on construction input price inflation," as he believes contractors shouldn't be too worried yet about major price increases in the near future.