Labor shortage to continue impacting construction in 2025
A previous report from ABC revealed that on a year-over-year basis, construction industry employment grew by 196,000 jobs in 2024, an increase of 2.4%. In December alone, 8,000 new jobs were added.
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“The U.S. construction industry’s efforts to hire more workers to replace retirees and meet the demand for new construction projects gained momentum in 2024,” said Michael Bellaman, ABC president and CEO. “That is fantastic news, but we still have a long way to go to shore up the talent pipeline. The data on the number of young people choosing a career in construction suggests that employing practical technology and innovation in educational programs and on jobsites helps maximize the productivity and efficiency of the construction workforce.”
ABC’s proprietary research model uses the historical relationship between inflation-adjusted construction spending growth, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Construction Put in Place Survey, and payroll construction employment, sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.