The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) released a study on the role immigrant labor plays on the remodeling industry. While immigrants account for an estimated one in five workers nationally,in the construction trades they represent about one in three workers. With the recent tightening of immigration laws, standards and work permits the team at JCHS predicts this could potentially strain the building and remodeling labor market.
This is especially true in large metro areas. Their research shows that in the seven metros that issued at least 150,000 building permits from 2019–2023, an average of 54% of the trades workforce was foreign‑born. This figure grows in a metro like Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, TX, where 61% of workers in the trades are foreign‑born.
“The substantial role of immigrant labor in these metros is in part due to chronic labor shortages in the construction trades workforce and the higher likelihood of immigrants to move in response to local labor markets,” said Riordan Frost, Senior Research Analyst at JCHS. “With the recent steep slowdown in immigration, new labor supply will be limited for the trades, which already struggle to attract workers from the broader labor force.”
Photo Credit: The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
