Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Chris Manuel with KeyBanc. Please proceed.
Jason Brown - KeyBanc Capital
Good morning this is Jason Brown on for Chris.
Donald James
Hey Jason.
Jason Brown - KeyBanc Capital
My question is on the non-residential decline that you are seeing now and how that progressed through second quarter. In your volume shift did you see a hard stop or was it a steady decline through the quarter. And then on a sequential basis how much deterioration do you see going into the second half of the year?
Donald James
Well, the data I gave had to do with contra -- macro contract awards and they started dropping sharply in May and June compared to a year ago. So the impact of that will be felt in the second half and then well in 2010. As that is concentrated in stores and office buildings, from the from our sales organization, there are a lot more projects out there that are being financed and I think that is -- there are two things working here; one is there's clearly a reduction in demand for stores and office buildings but even where there is an apparent demand, getting financing for those projects in the current climate is extraordinarily difficult.
And the combination of those two things, I think has caused the sharp drop in contract awards which will be felt for at least the next 12 months or so. Until that rolls over, private non-risk is going to be the last of our demand segments to recover. Highways and public infrastructure will be doing very well, there's even a glimmer in housing, but private non-res is the area that's gotten weakest most recently and will probably remain the weakest longest.
Jason Brown - KeyBanc Capital
Okay and then to kind of further break that down, I know at least in the census numbers it shows that the manufacturing part of that non-residential piece has stayed up more than I would have thought so far. Can you give a little color as to what's driving that and if there is any risk of seeing that market fall?
Donald James
Well if you look at construction put in place numbers you see that institutional buildings and manufacturing have remained relatively strong when you look at the contract award you see that buildings and stores have dropped from 50% of the total a year ago to 33%, which means manufacturing and institutional buildings are relatively stronger. The manufacturing tends to be long -- long lay up the contracts for example the ThyssenKrupp steel plant in Mobile, the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga.
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