From AGC’s new America’s Moving Forward campaign and Citizenship Portal to the staggering demand for nearly half a million new workers, the industry is racing to solve a problem decades in the making.

By TIFFANIE REYNOLDS

Walk any major construction jobsite in America and you’ll hear the same thing from superintendents, project managers and CEOs: we can’t find enough talented people.

It’s a problem that spans every trade and market segment, from the data center campuses of Northern Virginia to major infrastructure projects along the West Coast and Texas.

According to the Associated Builders and Contractors, the construction industry needed to attract 439,000 net new workers in 2025 alone just to meet demand. Over the next decade, that figure climbs to 1.9 million. Meanwhile, the Associated General Contractors of America reports that 92 percent of contractors are having a hard time filling open positions and nearly half have delayed at least one project because of labor shortages.

At AGC’s recent annual convention, workforce wasn’t one topic among many; it was the thread running through nearly every session.

A Pipeline Problem Decades in the Making

Ken Simonson, AGC of America’s chief economist with 40 years of industry experience, laid out the structural roots of today’s crisis during the plenary session. The problem, he explained, didn’t start in 2020 or even 2008. It started with a policy decision made in Washington four decades ago.

“In the 1980s, the government published reports saying we have to go to college to be competitive,” said Simsonson. “Parents and funding followed the recommendation. Only 20 percent of federal education funding goes to career or technical education and yet just 38 percent of workers actually receive a four-year degree.”

AGC’s 2025 workforce survey reports 63 percent of firms said they need to grow their headcount, yet the majority say it is harder than a year ago to find both salaried and hourly workers. Fifty-seven percent say available candidates lack the essential skills or required licenses.

McKinsey & Company identifies veteran-transition programs, formerly incarcerated individuals, women and workers of color as largely untapped recruiting pools – groups that have historically been kept out of the trades but could help offset retirements if contractors actively work to bring them in (and retain them).

The Immigration Equation

The domestic pipeline problem is compounded by an immigration policy framework that, according to AGC, was never built with construction in mind. Simonson described a federal visa system designed for seasonal farm workers and high-skilled tech professionals but nothing in between for the trades. “They created the H-2B visa and the H-2A,” Simonson noted. “But in the middle, they created no programs for people to come and work in construction. The H-2B is not a solution. Only 12,000 to 15,000 workers out of 8 million in the industry come through that program.”

That gap has widened under the current administration’s enforcement posture. AGC’s 2025 workforce survey found that 28 percent of construction firms reported being directly or indirectly affected by immigration enforcement activities in the prior six months. Simonson pointed to an estimated 4 million people currently in the country on temporary or short-term visas, many of whom work in construction. Under the current political climate, that population faces profound uncertainty. “Giving them long-term stability would help,” he remarked, adding that AGC is also pressing for new visa categories, including an H-2C construction-specific visa, though “that’s a long-term solution.”

AGC’s Citizenship Portal: A Practical Bridge

While the legislative battles around immigration reform continue to play out, AGC has moved to address the immediate needs of its members’ workforce through a new, practical tool: the AGC Citizenship and Immigration Support Portal.

Developed in partnership with the National Immigration Forum and powered by the Citizenshipworks platform, the portal is a resource offered directly to member firm employees and their families. It provides two key functions: it helps individuals determine whether they qualify for U.S. citizenship, and if so, connects them with vetted legal professionals to review their N-400 application at no charge. The USCIS filing fees still apply (approximately $760) but the legal review itself is provided pro-bono through the program.

For workers who may not be eligible for citizenship, the portal also serves as a referral network to connect individuals to vetted immigration attorneys who can assess what visa categories or legal statuses they may qualify for, helping them understand how to remain in the workforce legally. Background materials are available in both English and Spanish.

The portal is accessible through the Citizenshipworks.org platform, with a dedicated AGC landing page. AGC members are encouraged to share the resource broadly with their workforce. For more information, visit citizenshipworks.org/Campaign/naw-agc

America’s Moving Forward: Making the Political Case

Workforce fixes, however, require legislation, which is the driving force behind AGC’s recently launched public advocacy campaign, America’s Moving Forward. This is a targeted effort to push Congress on infrastructure investment, permitting reform and workforce development funding.

Deniz Mustafa, representing AGC’s government affairs team, said, “Segmentation surveys and focus groups allowed AGC to create the content for this effort,” noting the campaign is specifically designed to resonate with a broad, bipartisan audience.

Among the campaign’s legislative priorities: reform of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to provide more dedicated funding for construction training; expansion of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act; and the creation of new temporary work visa pathways specifically for construction.

The campaign also addresses infrastructure funding continuity by advocating for the modernization of the federal gas tax (last increased in 1993) to include electric vehicles and pushing to protect formula highway funding from discretionary cuts. Work zone safety, through the Safe Roads for Those Who Serve Act, is another component of the legislative package.

“We encourage people to contact their member of Congress to pass this,” Mustafa said. For contractors looking to add their voice, AGC has made advocacy tools available through its website at agc.org.

What’s Next?

Firms aren’t waiting for Washington. In fact, AGC’s 2025 workforce survey found that seven out of eight raised base pay as much as or more than the prior year. Forty-two percent increased spending on training and professional development. Fifty-five percent added social media and targeted digital strategies to recruit younger applicants, and 52 percent went directly into high schools, colleges and CTE programs.

Even with this effort, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that 35 percent of contractors have already turned down projects because they can’t staff them. That’s where the AGC’s legislative push and the new workforce tools become more important.

Simonson summarized this perfectly. “Construction workforce shortages aren’t just a problem for the construction industry,” he said. “Construction projects of all types are being delayed because there aren’t enough qualified workers available.” Every community waiting on a school, a hospital, a road or a data center feels that impact.

With better CTE funding, new visa pathways, tools like the Citizenship Portal and campaigns like America’s Moving Forward, the industry is showing up to put sustained emphasis on the topic to drive positive change.

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