Mesabi Tribune reports on increase in construction employment…

In recent years, financial commitment from the federal government to rebuild and expand critical American infrastructure has been a boon for the construction industry. Stemming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, federal funding announcements for infrastructure projects have totalled $552.8 billion as of June 2024. From building and expanding critical railroad corridors to securing clean water and broadband internet in rural communities, the American construction industry has its work cut out for it.

Despite these sizable financial commitments, the construction industry faces a major labor shortage. Largely due to the aforementioned infrastructure developments combined with recent large private sector construction projects, Associated Builders and Contractors—a construction industry trade association—estimates the sector needs to hire over 500,000 workers to satisfy current demand in 2024.

Here’s how Minnesota looks…

At the metropolitan level, there is a strong positive correlation between the overall health of the local economy and construction-specific job growth. In general, locations with the most total employment growth were more likely to have strong construction job growth, while metros suffering from job losses were more likely to cut back on construction hiring. These trends highlight the fact that job growth tends to reinforce itself. When a city adds more workers in one part of the economy, it often needs to create more homes, office space, and services to accommodate them, which helps create more jobs in other parts of the economy as well. In many of these high-growth cities, construction job growth significantly outpaced total employment growth over the past five years.

This analysis was conducted by Construction Coverage, a website that provides construction insurance guides, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. To determine the locations with the biggest increase in construction jobs, researchers calculated the percentage change in construction employment between 2018 and 2023.

Here is a summary of the data for Minnesota:

• Percentage change in construction employment (2018–2023): +10.4%
• Percentage change in total employment (2018–2023): +0.5%
• Total change in construction employment (2018–2023): +10,450
• Total construction employment (2023): 110,960
• Median annual wage for construction workers (2023): $65,770

For reference, here are the statistics for the entire United States:

• Percentage change in construction employment (2018–2023): +4.4%

• Percentage change in total employment (2018–2023): +4.9%

• Total change in construction employment (2018–2023): +262,990

• Total construction employment (2023): 6,225,630

• Median annual wage for construction workers (2023): $55,680

Hopefully this stands Minnesota in good stead when broadband deployment begins.