Now (still) hiring… The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill landed the construction industry in a unique bind: there’s plenty of work, but not enough workers. The $550B law has funded 37K projects and is expected to create millions of jobs, but the male-dominated industry is having trouble filling roles. Now the US gov’t is working with trade orgs to make construction jobs more appealing to women. Picture: childcare, onsite lactation rooms, and trying to stamp out harassment. It’s a heavy lift:
Under construction: As of 2021, only 4% of construction workers were women (up from 3% in 2010).
Men at work: In the US, women make up half of all workers, but fewer than 20% of infrastructure jobs (think: building, transportation, energy).
Stuck in a rut… While the construction industry’s struggled to hire women, the overall US gender employment gap has shrunk to a record low. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nearly 58% of adult US women participate in the workforce, compared to 68% of men. The labor-force participation rate for 25- to 54-year-old women hit 77.6% last month — a record high. One possible factor: the rise of remote work has enabled mothers with young kids to keep earning. FYI: the gender pay gap — the difference between what men and women are paid for the same work — has remained essentially stuck for 20 years, with women earning 82 cents for every dollar men make.
All hands on deck requires all hands… As the makeup of the US workforce continues to shift, strategies to recruit, train, and maintain employees must evolve too. Construction’s latest hiring effort suggests it’s now realized this. The Labor Department predicts that over the decade ending in 2031, women’s labor-force participation will increase by more than 6%.