Remodelers Facing Growing Labor Shortages

More than 90 percent of remodelers are dealing with a shortage of labor, and more than 40 percent say that the situation is severe, according to new NAHB survey data from the third quarter of 2017.

When evaluating the shortage by trade, the availability of carpenters was tightest, which has been a continuing trend. However, National Association of Home Builders notes that labor shortages are now becoming critical in trades that did not previously have such problems. For example, HVAC workers' shortage share was 12 percent in 2013, and grew to 54 percent in 2017. NAHB economist Paul Emrath writes, "for every one of the 12 trades covered by NAHB’s RMI survey in 2016 and 2017, the share of remodelers reporting a shortage jumped by more than 10 percentage points."

Historically, NAHB began asking remodelers about labor availability in 2013, initially covering a total of 12 occupations. Many of the 12 have followed a similar pattern since that time, with shortage percentages that skyrocketed between 2013 and 2014 and plateaued somewhere between 2014 and 2016, before resuming an upward, worsening trend.

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