There are more than 200,000 job openings in residential construction every month, and that shortage costs nearly $11 billion dollars per year due to longer cycle times, carrying costs, and higher wages for skilled labor.

NAHB’s advocacy team for labor and immigration policy is working with Congress to ensure the residential construction industry has the skilled and capable workforce needed to help close the housing supply gap.

Immigration and Labor Tied Together

You can’t discuss labor policy and workforce development without immigration, specifically the impact of non-native-born construction workers.

According to the American Immigration Council, the construction sector has the highest estimated share of undocumented immigrant workers of any industry, and more than one-third of all skilled trades workers nationwide are foreign-born.

The value of non-native labor is undeniable and vital, so NAHB supports efforts that preserve this workforce and provide home builders and trade partners easier access to foreign labor.

Domestic workforce policy should always prioritize creating good, well-paying jobs for U.S. born workers, but the reality is many native-born Americans are not pursuing careers in construction. Even so, NAHB will never advocate for hiring or having individuals on job sites working unlawfully. 

One current piece of immigration and workforce legislation that NAHB supports is the Dignity Act. The bill creates a seven-year pathway for undocumented individuals who have been in the U.S. since at least 2020 and requires them to meet a very strict set of rules and conditions each year that, if met, earns them indefinitely renewable, permanent work authorization—a practical and effective way to maintain and preserve the nation’s construction workforce as it is.

The Dignity Act is supported broadly across many different industries, not just construction, including hospitality, agriculture and healthcare—all of which face critical labor shortages that have massive economic impacts.

However, in a midterm election year and with the White House and House Judiciary Committee advocating enforcement bills over reform policy, the Dignity Act has a tough road ahead to become law.

The H-2B nonimmigrant work visa is another lever to pull to boost labor supply. This highly sought-after provision applies to all types of industries, not just construction, and has been limited to 66,000 visas per year.

In May, however, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor authorized an additional 64,716 supplemental H-2B visas for fiscal year 2026, bringing the total limit to 130,716.

Of the 64,716 visas added, 46,226 will be available only for returning workers, meaning those who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status in one of the last three fiscal years.

NAHB also supports creating a work visa specific to the construction sector that builders, trade partners, and suppliers can access to bolster their workforce needs. 

The Labor Shortage: How We Got Here and What to Do

The social stigma that surrounded careers in construction and the skilled trades for a generation, instead placing an emphasis on “college for all” educational policy, led to a dearth of skilled labor to serve this industry.

Even though a four-year undergraduate degree is not for everyone, that stigma resulted in less guidance toward trade skills, especially in the secondary schools and at home, and steered young people away from those pathways and training.

NAHB is supportive of legislative decisions that increase awareness of careers in the trades and that support increased investment in workforce development programming nationwide. Currently, the CONSTRUCTS Act, NAHB-endorsed legislation in both the House and the Senate, would directly address the nation’s lack of skilled workers.

A bipartisan and bicameral effort with a growing list of co-sponsors, the legislation would create a competitive grant program within the U.S. Department of Labor that trade schools and community colleges can access if they have training programs for residential construction.

The problem is clear: we need more people to build the housing that the nation sorely needs. There's a wide-held belief that lucrative careers and high-paying jobs aren’t attainable in the construction industry, despite that the median wage of construction workers in 2025 is $61,370, compared to the U.S. median wage of $50,890. Also, the top 25% of construction workers earn at least $83,450, while the top quarter of workers nationally earn $80,520.

Digging into the numbers further, the median wage in construction has risen 25% since 2021 (up from $49,070), but the U.S. median wage has only risen 11% in that time (up from $45,760). The construction industry not only pays better than the national average; its wages have grown twice as fast in the last five years, too.

It’s difficult to address housing supply and affordability without addressing workforce development needs. The residential construction industry will need 2.2 million new skilled workers over the next three years to keep up with demand and account for industry expansion, retirements and departures.

We need to invest more to prepare our domestic workforce for good careers in construction. At the same time, we must make sure we're addressing our foreign-born workforce population and not enacting policies detrimental to the outcomes we're hoping to achieve.