The United States is facing one challenge that threatens everything from its competitive edge in high-tech manufacturing to overcoming the grinding housing crisis: There are not nearly enough construction workers.
According to a recent RAND paper, expanding construction apprenticeship programs and improving their completion rates could help. Currently, the typical apprenticeship program is very small and very competitive, and about 40 percent of apprentices drop out before they make it to the end of their program.
Apprenticeships alone, however, will not be sufficient. That's because the United States would need to add more than 430,000 new construction workers this year to keep up with demand. Filling such a large gap will require identifying and investing in other pathways into construction jobs.
Without action, the impacts could be substantial: The cost of building anything will go up, and both residential and commercial construction will end up on the back burner—potentially prolonging the housing crisis and halting progress on building new manufacturing and semiconductor facilities. As the paper's authors put it, “The United States must first rebuild its construction workforce in order to rebuild the country.”
