Why Public Sector Engineering and Construction Is Still Down?

From the Upshot Column of the New York Times yesterday - - Why Is The Economy Still Weak?  Blame These Five Sectors:

"State and local governments spent the years after the crisis cutting employees and trimming costs. The result: a $189 billion gap between what they were actually spending this spring versus what would be expected based on their historical share of the economy.

Federal government spending is $118 billion below the level one would expect given longer-term trends. The spending cuts that were part of deals to trim expenditures emanating from the 2011 debt ceiling deal, combined with the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mean that federal spending was 6.8 percent of potential G.D.P., down from 7.4 percent of actual G.D.P. from 1993 to 2013.

Housing is the biggest and least surprising, accounting for $239 billion in missing economic output. We examined this sector’s continued underperformance earlier in the year, but the short version is this: Even years after the housing bust, the United States is building far fewer houses than would be expected given demographic trends. It may be that a broader shift is underway in the desire and ability of young adults to get homes of their own. Regardless, it is holding back construction and home sales activity."