US Building Industry Struggling to Fill Available Skilled Worker Positions

Houses under construction in a new development in Brambleton, Va., on Aug. 14, 2024. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

The nation’s builders are being increasingly burdened by a lack of skilled construction workers and specialty trade contractors such as plumbers, welders, electricians, and HVAC technicians.

As the United States continues to need more affordable housing, which will reach a deficit of 1.5 million homes in the second part of this decade, according to data used by the Home Builders Institute, the rush is on to find skilled tradespeople to help meet the nation’s construction needs. But answers to the skilled worker deficit are hard to find.

“It’s the million-dollar question. I think if we had an answer, we wouldn’t be hearing about the problem,” Paul Flynn, director of workforce development for the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), told The Epoch Times.

“We’re throwing the kitchen sink at it right now and trying everything. As an example, Atlanta has 865 first-year electrical apprentices. That’s the story across the country. We’re working overtime and weekends, but there’s a limit to that. We’re trying to build the future workforce, but what do we do right now?”

According to the National Association of Home Builder’s (NAHB) economic outlook, there are about 723,000 job openings in construction per year. Any increase in available workers to fill those openings will depend on education and training and, more importantly, the younger generation’s interest in filling the gap created by retiring specialty contractors.

The unavoidable result, according to Flynn, is that the building industry will lag in meeting the needs of Americans desperate for more affordable housing.

“Hey, some projects are just going to have to be delayed. Business owners need to strategically wait six months or a year, and then you throw in hurricanes. There’s no waiting there,” he said.

“Electrical contractors need to get lines restrung and the power back on. We’re competing with all the other mechanical trades for people. Everyone is in a competition for workers right now. I’ve never seen anything like this in my career.”

Vermont Goes Out of State to Rebuild

There are areas other than the southeastern United States that have suffered from violent weather conditions recently. In Vermont, for example, Hurricane Beryl left a trail of destruction this summer, including flooding that caved in roads, destroyed homes and vehicles, and led to the need for boat rescues in some communities. A report from the state’s auditor said that Vermont, regularly affected by weather-related events, had been hit with 21 federally declared disasters between 2011 and 2023.

According to Richard Wobby Jr., the executive vice president of the Vermont Construction Association, a lack of skilled contractors meant the state was still trying to recover from the 2023 flooding when Beryl hit, making today’s cleanup efforts nearly impossible.

“Between infrastructure, recovery, and building, we were addressing it reasonably well. Then you had the flood affecting the northeast [section] of the state, and all those plans went to hell,” he told The Epoch Times. “Then you add the immediacy of what is happening today to try to get businesses stabilized, and we did so, but workload just has become exasperated again.”

Wobby says Vermont does not have enough skilled tradesmen to handle the work needed, so it has had to go out of state to hire throughout New England.

“We are severely lacking contractors. When you look at the workforce, we need equipment operators, finished carpenters, and roofers. Roughly, I’d say that is probably the biggest need,” he said.

But, natural disasters aside, housing starts were up by 9.6 percent in August, with an annual rate of 1.36 million units, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. And the question remains: Where will the industry get enough workers to meet the market’s needs and expectations?

Recruiting Immigrants to Fill Jobs

“We have the statistics showing us how many people are now 15 years old who will enter our workforce in three years, and there are less of them. Business owners should recognize that this tight labor market is going to last and will not resolve itself in the next 10 years,” said Flynn, noting that one of the moves the NECA is making is to reach out to immigrants.

According to the latest numbers from the NAHB, the annual flow of new immigrants into the construction industry is down significantly, averaging only 45,000 annually from 2010 to 2019 compared with 88,000 annually on average from 2003 to 2009. A third of construction trade workers were foreign-born in 2022, and Flynn says the NECA is taking strides to rebuild the immigrant workforce in the electrical contractor sector.

“We’re creating Spanish-language classes, and in cities like Atlanta, which is one of the biggest hot spots for this, they have a contractor group teaching workers English,“ he said. ”They’ve hired a professional English-speaking teacher to help.”