Workforce challenges and strategies of top contractors in the United States

Abstract

The construction industry is plagued with numerous workforce challenges. The skilled craft labor shortage has been a consistent and unfortunate recurring struggle for the past three decades. Moreover, recent trends show that the construction workforce has been aging rapidly, aggravating the labor shortage challenge and negatively impacting project performance in terms of cost, schedule, and safety. Studies in the existing literature have highlighted the different workforce challenges and strategies to address them and mitigate their impact, mostly from a research perspective. However, no research has yet studied how top contractors in the United States are dealing with these workforce issues. The purpose of this study is to analyze the challenges the top contractors in America face and synthesize the strategies they employ to address these challenges and increase workforce performance. To achieve the research objective, the authors analyzed recent annual reports of top contractors and summarized the challenges they face and the policies and strategies they have institutionalized to respond to current challenges.