Nevada once employed 146,000 construction workers, but now the state is at a two-decade low of 63,000.
The state is scrambling to find skilled builders. So are many others — Arizona, California and Florida, among others, have lost more than a quarter of their construction workers since 2007, according to The Atlantic.
Where are these workers going? Some have gone back to school to kick start a career change, earning government grants to mitigate tuition costs.
Some just shifted around, heading out to states like North Dakota and Texas, where construction employment rates have risen over the last few years. And Mexican immigrants that worked in the Southwest may have just headed back home after the recession, a Pew report says.
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