Growth doesn't guarantee a talent pool. In a handful of high-demand metros, construction hiring has become a bidding war over a thin slice of experienced professionals, and the pattern is more predictable than it looks.
Every contractor knows talent is hard to find. Fewer understand that the difficulty isn’t uniform; it clusters. The national construction labor shortage is really a story about specific metros where explosive demand has collided with a shallow local bench. Understanding which markets are hardest, and why, is the difference between a hiring strategy that works […]
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As multifamily starts surge, developers are discovering that experienced superintendents don't grow on trees, and the shortage is reshaping how projects get staffed.
Walk onto any active multifamily site in a major metro these days, and you’ll likely hear the same complaint from developers and GCs alike: finding a good superintendent has never been harder. But the thing is, this isn’t just another cyclical labor crunch. It’s a structural shift, born from the fact that the buildings themselves […]
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Specialized commercial experience now commands a 15–25% salary premium, and the gap is still widening. Here's what the numbers show and what it means for your hiring strategy.
If you’ve watched construction salaries over the past few years, you’ve probably noticed something: not all project management roles are paying the same anymore. Commercial project managers are pulling ahead, and the gap is widening faster than many in the industry realize. The pay gap, in numbers Recent industry salary surveys tell a consistent story. […]
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Big projects, a shrinking bench, and a statewide race for skilled workers. Here's what California contractors need to know this year.
California’s construction industry enters 2026 with a familiar paradox: the work is there, but the workers aren’t. Between major infrastructure programs, housing mandates, and a wave of commercial and renewable-energy projects, contractors across the state are booking work at a healthy clip. Yet nearly every firm we talk to says the same thing: finding qualified […]
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Superintendent pay has always varied by metro. But in 2026, the spread between the top-paying markets and the rest is getting wider.
Superintendent pay has never been the same from city to city. That’s always been true. What’s different in 2026 is how much the gap has grown. A superintendent in one metro can earn meaningfully more than a peer with identical experience a few hundred miles away, and the reasons aren’t hard to find. Where the […]
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