The ongoing housing shortage means more skilled construction workers are needed. How many more? According to a report from the Home Builders Institute, the U.S. will need to hire 723,000 new construction workers per year to address the housing deficit. Currently, there are 8.3 million workers employed in construction throughout the U.S., with 3.4 million of them working in residential construction.
Additional skilled construction workers will be needed to reduce the nation's housing deficit during the second part of the current decade, a shortfall NAHB estimates to total 1.5 million homes. Moreover, labor productivity growth is central to economic gains and wage growth. Gains for productivity will depend on education efforts for workers and offsetting inefficiency regulatory burdens in sectors like construction.