Have you ever wondered why the apartment building at the end of your block seems to be taking forever to complete, or why a new home is taking years longer than expected? The answer isn’t just COVID or an economic downturn — it’s actually the opposite: booming demand with too few workers. The construction sector is grappling with a severe labor shortage, leading to project delays and skyrocketing costs for new buildings. In Phoenix, the demand for more construction is high as the city’s population and industry grows.


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“When you look at the Arizona construction market, you see a lot of large-scale construction projects. Those large-scale projects have a demand for workers that are required to execute the construction. The overall growth within the Arizona market is driving the demand for trade professionals required to execute the jobs,” says Eric Fields, senior vice president of operations for McCarthy Building Companies.

The training gap 

Recently, major semiconductor manufacturers like TSMC and Intel have brought a wave of new job opportunities to the Valley. However, the demand for skilled tradespeople to construct these multi-billion-dollar facilities has far outpaced the available workforce.

“When you have the kind of explosive growth that we have, we are not just building homes and warehouses, like we did in the early 2000s, we’re building very sophisticated manufacturing facilities,” says Chris Camacho, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.

It is easy to forget the sheer number of hands that work on any construction site, let alone something as sophisticated as a TSMC facility. To name a few, there are construction equipment operators, carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, and a long list of others. 

All of these positions on a construction site are essential, no matter if it’s a residential home being built or a billion-dollar manufacturing plant.

Each of these positions, however, require years of training and expertise and currently there is a staggering gap in the number of people entering the workforce and the number retiring from it.

The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) states that the U.S. currently lacks around 430,000 construction workers. In the three years they studied, from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to early 2023, the construction workforce had only recovered 67% of the jobs lost at the beginning of the pandemic, NCCER also reports.

“Construction is one of those industries that if you ask any general contractor, they’ll tell you, we can’t find enough employees,” says Dr. Chad Wilson, superintendent of the East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT).

EVIT, Mesa Public Schools and a number of other organizations in Phoenix have recognized the lack of growth in the construction industry and have created their own programs to help find a solution.

At EVIT and Mesa High School, students can participate in construction programs that set them up with the certifications and experience required to land a job in the field, sometimes even before they’ve graduated from high school.

“The outcomes for our students are if they’re interested in entering that industry, we can get them placed on the job before they’re done completing our program because there’s such need within business and industry,” Wilson says.

“The biggest thing that we’re trying to do is then for their senior year, get them into those internship programs… Even if they’re 17, and we do have employers that are hiring kids at 17, so that they have that on-the-job kind of work experience and training, which gets them directly into that workforce, that job, that trade,” adds Marlo Loria, director of career and technical education for Mesa Public Schools.

While programs like EVIT and Mesa Public Schools are helping young adults enter the workforce, the challenge remains: fewer people are entering the industry than are retiring, and the gap is only set to widen.

Baby Boomers, the division of the individuals ages 57 to 75, have been making their exit from the workforce for years now. According to the National Center for Construction Education & Research 41% of the current construction workforce, including many people in management roles, will retire by the year 2031.

As Baby Boomers retire, they leave behind a gap that is difficult to fill, particularly as fewer young workers enter the construction field. This shrinking workforce has forced contractors to compete for skilled labor, resulting in escalating wages and longer project durations.

Rising costs  

As skilled labor becomes more scarce, contractors are forced to offer higher wages to attract workers. This, combined with extended project timelines, pushes up the overall cost of construction. Projects that were initially estimated to cost $50 million might now come in at $60 million or more, due to the labor shortages stretching the project out and driving up daily operating costs.

While programs like EVIT and Mesa Public Schools are helping train the next generation of tradespeople, the shortage remains a pressing issue for contractors, project owners and the entire economy. With labor shortages pushing up costs and extending project timelines, the construction industry faces a crucial crossroads.

If these trends continue, the delay and expense of building homes, schools and critical infrastructure may become a permanent feature of the Arizona landscape. The challenge is clear: unless the industry attracts more workers and continues to invest in training, the dream of new developments, from affordable housing to state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, may continue to slip further into the future.