More than 30 years ago, for a different housing industry magazine, I wrote an article about the shortage of skilled labor in the residential construction industry and shared tactics being employed by home builders to address it.  

And yet here we are, a generation-plus later, sitting in the same boat on reservoir in the throes of a severe drought ... which leaves me with only one conclusion: the housing industry will never refill its labor pool to adequately support demand and production. 

But before I get into the “whys” of that statement, let me iterate my 100% support any and all efforts to enable, promote, fund, and provide workforce development training, and broadening those initiatives to recruit ex-military, women, non-violent ex-cons, and certainly young people to join the ranks. 

The efforts by the Home Builders Institute, SkillsUSA, mutiple foundations, and the federal CONSTRUCTS and Dignity Act legislation, to name just a few, are dedicated to attracting more and younger workers to the trades.

I just don’t think it will ever be nearly enough to close the gap.  

Simply, and obviously, times have changed dramatically since the 1990s. For one, there are far more employment options among a wider variety of industries and jobs within traditional workplaces, mostly tech-oriented but also in green energy and in healthcare.  

That’s one reason the national unemployment rate has been a steady 4.3% or so for two years, and more specifically why residential construction labor isn’t keeping up with other sectors.

Another reason tracks back to “college for all” policies, subsidies, and propaganda that framed a four-year degree as the golden ticket to economic security. School counselors and parents bought into the hype, replaced shop classes with computer labs, and stigmatized careers in construction. Rebuilding that infrastructure will be a slog.

And here’s another, less obvious wrinkle: those who complete trade skills programs and earn construction management degrees are overwhelmingly snapped up by the commercial sector. 

Why? Because that sector supports those educators and students with funding, content, technology, and internships regardless of market conditions, while home builders might spark up in boom times but mostly disappear in downturns. 

The numbers don't lie: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the non-residential construction sector added a net 98,000 jobs in the past year, while the residential sector lost a net 49,800 jobs in that time frame. 

That decline (and the struggle to replenish it) also reflects the decline of immigrant labor dating back to an exodus in the wake of the Great Recession to today's enforcement policies, as well as the rise of data centers, which are siphoning not just land and resources, but also labor from all other construction sectors.

And then there’s the aging-out factor among current workers combined with a shrinking national birth rate, the “dirty jobs” excuses, and the general lack of benefits afforded to non-union workers employed by mom-and-pop operations, the majority of the subcontractor world.  

That last point speaks to a significant, if not new, reality: that most home builders, while certainly suffering the consequences of a stagnant trade base, don’t directly employ skilled trades. That disconnect creates distance from the problem, an excuse to defer it to others, and a lack of incentive to solve it.  

Even so, the actual problem is no longer how to refill the construction labor pool; it’s how to close the housing supply gap with the workers we have and likely a shrinking force at that.  

Is it off-site and robotic building methods that require fewer workers in safer conditions working year-round? AI-driven tools and practices that streamline the build process and make better use of the trades? Or something else? 

You tell me. 

• Pro+Connect events bring together home builders and leading suppliers for curated 1-1 meetings to discuss challengeds and solutions. Apply now for upcoming events in September and October at proconnect-events.com
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