Material moving machine operators use equipment to transport objects. Painters apply paint, stain, and coatings to walls and ceilings, buildings, large machinery and equipment, and bridges and other structures. The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program produces employment and wage estimates annually for over 800 occupations.
Construction laborers and helpers wear gloves, safety glasses, and other protective gear. Construction laborers and helpers work on almost all construction sites, performing a range of tasks that may vary in complexity. Overall employment of construction laborers and helpers is projected to grow 6 percent from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations. This report compiles source-verified statistics on the construction workforce for journalists, policymakers, and industry professionals. With 94% of contractors reporting difficulty filling craft positions, wages rising 4%+ annually, and a massive infrastructure bill creating new demand, the labor shortage is reshaping the https://synapsewaves.com/articles/building-energy-consumption-2020-analysis/ industry.
Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire. About 137,000 openings for construction laborers and helpers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. The median annual wage for construction laborers and helpers was $46,680 in May 2025. Although formal education is not typically required, some employers may prefer to hire candidates who have a high school diploma or the equivalent. Their jobs are often physically demanding and may require being outdoors in all weather conditions. Most construction laborers and helpers work full time, and schedules may vary.
Safety
- BLS employment projections, wage, and other data for related occupations not shown in the following table are available on the Data for Occupations Not Covered in Detail page.
- And according to its model, every additional $1 billion spent on construction translates to demand for 3,450 fresh jobs.
- Compensation continues to be a central workforce challenge in construction and a primary tool for attracting and retaining talent in a historically tight labor market.
- Construction input prices were up 4.8% year-over-year through March 2026, the largest annual increase since January 2023, compounding existing tariff-driven cost escalation.
By Q3 2025, the pattern had stabilized but stayed negative, with losses of 678,000 against gains of 623,000, signaling that the labor market was cooling well before the early-2026 employment data was published. The rate stood at 5.0% in December 2025 before rising to 7.1% in January 2026 (revised upward due to updated population controls), moderating to 6.9% in February and 6.7% in March, then dropping sharply to 3.8% in April as seasonal hiring picked up. Specialty trades, including electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and concrete work, represent the largest share and are where hiring pressure is most acute. In March, the sector added 16,000 jobs (revised from an initial estimate of 26,000). In January, the construction sector accounted for 33,000 of the 130,000 total jobs added nationwide, nearly one in four. Recent BLS releases have revised prior months downward, suggesting the industry’s early-2026 recovery was weaker than initially reported.
Hiring Difficulty
When union settlements average 4.7% annually and union members earn 40% more per week, nonunion employers must benchmark against those figures whether or not they bargain collectively. The 2025 figures are based on an 11-month average that excludes October, for which data was not collected due to the federal government shutdown. Workers represented by unions, including non-members covered by collective bargaining agreements, totaled 12.0%, up from 11.2% in 2024. At the individual worker level, a three percentage point difference may not be immediately visible, but in aggregate, it signals that construction firms may be underinvesting in the non-wage components that increasingly influence retention decisions.
- Employment growth for specific types of construction helpers is expected to be driven by the construction and renovation of homes and nonresidential structures.
- Sustaining productivity gains depends not just on technology investment but on workforce skill levels.
- Injuries may result from incidents such as slips, falls, and contact with objects or equipment.
- The mood has shifted from the expansion-oriented optimism of recent years toward careful risk management, driven by a combination of macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical disruption, and persistent workforce constraints.
- “Failing to do so will worsen labor shortages, especially in certain occupations and regions, placing further upward pressure on labor costs,” ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu warned in a statement.
We’re partnered with one of the industry’s largest security perimeter and access control providers, and we support them across a wide range of data center projects nationwide. The average net reading across all categories, while still moderately positive at 9%, is only a fraction of the prior year’s level. Dodge reports that commercial planning momentum was up 28.5% year-over-year in March, but when data centers are removed, commercial planning was down 12.7%. The degree to which data centers are distorting the broader picture is now quantifiable.
HBI Construction Labor Market Reports
In fact, Zach enrolled in no-cost trades training at the BuildStrong Academy of Greater New Orleans with his mother in 2022, followed by his father and two brothers in 2023. Before joining HUD, Seth worked on Capitol Hill, including serving as Chief of Staff for https://codefortots.com/novosti/financial-literacy-for-construction-workers-practical-money-management-tips/ U.S. Seth previously served as President of MISMO, the real estate finance industry’s standards organization.
Apprentices to electricians, plumbers, and other tradesworkers may have tasks that are similar to those of helpers. Others assist with tool maintenance, cleaning up sites, and disposing of waste, as well as helping tradesworkers with other tasks. Helpers assist construction tradesworkers with a variety of tasks. With special training, laborers may help transport and use explosives or run hydraulic boring machines to dig tunnels. Other laborers, such as those on road crews, may specialize and learn to control traffic patterns or to operate pavement breakers, jackhammers, earth tampers, or surveying equipment. Explore resources for employment and wages by state and area for construction laborers and helpers.
- Their jobs are often physically demanding and may require being outdoors in all weather conditions.
- On a year-to-date basis through February, total starts were down 1.9%, with residential starts down 12.4% and nonresidential starts down 2.0%.
- This represents a narrowing from 2024, when union workers earned $1,530 per week compared to $1,051 for nonunion workers, a premium of roughly 46%.
- Projected employment of construction laborers and helpers varies by occupation (see table).
- Fifty-five percent have added online strategies such as social media and targeted digital advertising to reach younger applicants, and 52% have engaged with career-building programs at high schools, colleges, or career and technical education institutions.
Apprenticeship & Training
If hiring remains uneven through 2026 while retirements continue at their projected pace, the industry will enter 2027 with an even deeper structural deficit, precisely when ABC projects worker demand will jump to 456,000. ABC reported average backlogs of 8.6 months in March 2026, fully recovering from a four-year low in January and returning to levels not seen since the prior summer. Sustaining productivity gains depends not just on technology investment but on workforce skill levels. With labor costs now rising at roughly 3.1–3.2%, materials costs rising at 4.8–5.4%, and productivity improving at only 2.0%, materials have become the dominant pressure on contractor margins.
Wages and salaries account for $35.47 per hour (69.7% of total compensation), while total benefits account for $15.45 per hour (30.3%). But multiple signals now suggest the rate of acceleration is leveling off. For firms competing in markets where data center and energy projects are concentrated, wage escalation remains the cost of keeping crews intact. In addition to base pay, 21% of firms introduced or increased incentives and bonuses, and 20% increased their share of benefit contributions or enhanced employee benefits. The compression likely reflects the tight labor market’s effect on nonunion pay, as open-shop firms compete more aggressively for the same workers.
