Immigrant Workers Are One-Third of U.S. Construction Trades

This NAHB Eye on Housing analysis covers 2024 labor force data showing foreign-born workers now make up 26.3% of the total construction workforce, a record high. Among skilled trades specifically, the share hits one in three. The piece breaks down concentration by state and by trade category, giving a ground-level view of where immigrant labor is most embedded in the workforce pipeline. It is directly relevant to GC workforce planning and subcontractor capacity projections.

The number that matters for estimators is not the national average. It’s your subcontractors’ exposure in your specific trades and markets. Drywall, concrete, and roofing subs in Texas, California, and Florida are running crews that are 50% or more foreign-born in many cases. Any policy tightening on immigration enforcement or work authorization does not hit those trades uniformly, it hits your lowest-margin, most schedule-sensitive scopes first. Budgets built today without a labor availability buffer in those trades are already behind. The AGC workforce development resources are worth reviewing if you’re modeling labor exposure by region.

Read the full story at NAHB Eye on Housing.