Although still demonstrating growth, these are the lowest figures we've seen in the last 3 months and early hopes of the recession ending early are looking more and more unlikely.
Comparing 2012's reading to the previous two years, there's an unfortunate similarity to the figures seen in early 2011.
Before you get too excited about this "large spurt of order gains", let me share this report the ONS released earlier today on the New Orders in the Construction Industry Q1 2012.