Tag: labor
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From Manual Labor to Mechanical Advantage on Jobsites
Construction sites have always depended on human effort. For generations, progress was measured by how much physical work a crew could complete in a day. While skill and experience remain central to modern construction, the way labor is applied has changed significantly. Today’s jobsites are increasingly defined by mechanical advantage rather than sheer physical output.…
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What Will Shape Construction in 2026? Interest Rates, Labor Gaps and Market Shifts
Growth in the construction industry plateaued over the past year — and in 2026, look for that trend to continue. Faced with labor shortages, supply chain issues and economic pressures like high interest rates and tariff uncertainty, construction will need to adopt more disciplined habits and embrace both technological and cultural innovation in order to…
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QBE: Labor Gaps, Higher Costs Shape 2025 U.S. Commercial Construction Outlook
QBE North America has released its 2026 U.S. Commercial Construction Outlook, developed with Control Risks, outlining key pressures and opportunities for the industry. The report, which is based off of 2025 reports, says commercial construction faces continued labor shortages, driven by an aging workforce and immigration limits, even as overall employment remains high. Material costs…
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NYC pegs $7B in work to new project labor agreements
Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: More than $7 billion in upcoming construction in New York City will now fall under new project labor agreements, according to a news release from the office of Mayor Eric Adams. The agreements standardize labor…
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NYC pegs $7B in work to new project labor agreements
Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: More than $7 billion in upcoming construction in New York City will now fall under new project labor agreements, according to a news release from the office of Mayor Eric Adams. The agreements standardize labor…
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Gen Z Revitalizes the Skilled Trades Amid Construction Labor Shortages
As Baby Boomers retire, they take with them decades of accumulated skill, leadership and institutional knowledge, and presently, there are not enough new workers to replace them. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reports that the median age of a construction worker has reached 42, about a year older than the national labor force…
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What commercial builders miss about Gen Z and the labor shortage
Listen to the article 5 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Chase Manning is principal at Nashville, Tennessee-based Dowdle Construction Group. Opinions are the author’s own. The construction industry is in the midst of a critical workforce challenge: a labor shortage. Contractors are struggling to fill open positions,…
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Government Shutdowns Deepen Construction Labor Crisis
When we think of the federal government being shut down, what we commonly picture are National Parks closed, flights grounded, even delays in Social Security benefits due to staffing shortages. Rarely do we hear of how these shutdowns put a choke-hold on the legal immigration pipeline that supplies our economy with the labor vital to…
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With shutdown, contractors ‘in the dark’ on labor data
Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. The 2025 U.S. government shutdown is officially the longest in the nation’s history. As of Thursday, it’s reached 37 days long. As the federal government duels over requirements to pay emergency SNAP benefits and the travel industry…
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There’s no skilled labor shortage in construction. There is a shortage of good jobs.
Listen to the article 4 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Gary R. Armstrong Jr. is the business manager for Iron Workers Local 5 in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. metro area. Opinions are the author’s own. We often hear that construction is facing a “skilled labor shortage.” Developers and…