Skilled Labor Shortages Remain a Top Concern for Construction Industry
The most recent Construction Labor Market Report from the Home Builders Institute (HBI) reveals that the construction industry needs an additional 723,000 new construction workers each year to meet current levels of demand. The number of open jobs in the construction sector currently averages between 300,000 to 400,000 each month, and that shortage is impeding the nation’s efforts to improve housing inventory and affordability.
The total share of construction workers between the ages of 25 and 54 dropped by six percent over the past seven years, and single-family builders and remodelers are reporting a major absence of carpenters and subcontractors, NAHB reports.
According to Ed Brady, HBI president and CEO, the facts show the construction industry today must focus on three urgent priorities:
- Promote training and jobs in the trades to those people who have not yet considered a career in construction;
- Support immigration reform designed to produce the next generation of new Americans seeking opportunity in the United States; and
- Advocate for housing affordability by demonstrating the direct link between the nation’s housing shortage and its construction labor shortage.