Company closures and restrictive measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus disease led to a record drop in construction activity in Italy during March.
New orders and buying activity also fell at the steepest rates in the survey's two-decade history.
Meanwhile, staffing levels declined at the quickest pace since mid-2012 as a lack of new work and an uncertain outlook led many companies to shed staff.
Consequently, the business outlook darkened notably, with firms the most pessimistic regarding future activity since the depths of the global financial crisis in February 2009.
The headline figure from the survey is the IHS Markit Italy Construction Total Activity Index.
This is a diffusion index that tracks changes in the total volume of construction activity compared with one month previously, and is adjusted for seasonal variations.
The Total Activity Index fell nearly 35 points from 50.5 in February to 15.9 in March, to signal a renewed decline in overall construction activity.
Furthermore, the rate of contraction was substantial and the quickest seen since the survey began in July 1999.
All three monitored sub-sectors registered record drops in activity at the end of the first quarter, with commercial construction recording the lowest index reading of all three.
After a tentative improvement in February, new business volumes collapsed in March, as firms reported widespread shutdowns across Italy due to efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.
As was the case for overall activity, the pace of decline was the sharpest in the series two-decade history.
Lower activity and new orders prompted construction firms to cut back on their input buying following a slight increase in February.
Moreover, the rate of contraction was the steepest on record.
A lack of new work and greater uncertainty over the outlook led to redundancies, according to panel members.
Employment fell sharply across the sector overall, with the rate of job shedding the quickest seen since August 2012.
Company shutdowns and measures to limit travel due to the virus led to a further lengthening of average delivery times for inputs.
Notably, the rate at which vendor performance deteriorated was the most marked since the survey began over 20 years ago.
Prices data showed that input cost inflation eased, with purchasing costs rising at the slowest rate for seven months.
Survey respondents noted that softer demand conditions had weighed on the pricing power of suppliers.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent severe disruption to Italy's economy led firms to generally expect construction activity to contract over the next year.
Notably, the degree of negative sentiment was the most marked for just over 11 years. ■