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Construction spending across the entire United States fell 1.4 percent February, continuing a downward trend since last November.

According to Reed Construction Data, which compiled the numbers as part of , construction spending has continued to drop because of recent cutbacks in public construction projects and a continued stall in new residential construction.

The data proves this. Through the first two months of 2011, spending on non-residential building has decreased by a total of 9.1 percent. Over that same time period residential construction has picked up by 4.2 percent, but that’s after dropping 24 percent, 34 percent, 40 percent and 4 percent over the past four years, compared to the previous year, respectively.

Reed Construction Data is now predicting a 2.1 percent decline in total construction spending from the end of 2010 to the end of 2011. But the research firm expects construction to pick up significantly in 2012, with a predicted 13.9 percent increase in total construction spending.