NCCER Celebrates 2024 Research Impacting Construction Workforce Development
ALACHUA, Fla. ̶ The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), a leading nonprofit construction education foundation, continued its efforts to help create opportunities for career development and support industry growth through several groundbreaking research initiatives in 2024.
“NCCER understands the importance of providing relevant data and information concerning workforce development in the construction industry,” said Jennifer Wilkerson, Vice President of Innovation and Advancement at NCCER. “It is our goal to not only provide the research, but to also create action items organizations can take to improve the construction industry’s ability to recruit, train and retain its workforce.”
As the industry faces a growing workforce demand gap, some estimates predict shortages of skilled craft professionals to be as high as 2.6 million by 2028. To assist the industry in their efforts to overcome this, NCCER released several pieces of key research.
To bring attention to the high-earning potential available in the construction industry, and hopefully attract new entrants, NCCER released the 2024 Construction Craft Salary Survey. Based on the results of this survey, more than 80% of positions reported salaries above $65,000, with multiple construction crafts topping the list with salaries of more than $89,600.
As a follow up to NCCER’s popular 2023 research on women in construction, it released In Her Own Words: A Call to Action From the Field. This companion piece compiled the recommendations made by 176 tradeswomen in the field and highlights actionable items contractors can implement to improve recruitment and retention of women in the industry. The research identified seven main action items ranging from parent parking on large industrial project sites to assistance with childcare. The call-to-action guide offers specific, straightforward and measurable tactics companies can apply to support women in the construction workforce.
Additional research included Career Pathways Earnings Data Comparison: Construction Craft Professional and Four-Year College Degree Pathways that compares earnings of individuals who enter into construction careers via apprenticeships versus those who enter into other careers via the traditional four-year college degree paths.
NCCER is committed to research that focuses on the workforce challenges faced by the construction industry.
For more information about NCCER’s commitment to research, visit nccer.org/research.
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About NCCER – The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit education foundation and the leading provider of construction education for industry and career and technical education programs. With flexible workforce development and learning solutions, NCCER’s programs provide consistency and quality to ensure craft professionals and learners receive industry-recognized credentials and certifications. To learn more, visit www.nccer.org.