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Construction executives will be watching how President Donald Trump’s second administration plans to address certain industry challenges that have long plagued progress.
To support construction growth, the Associated General Contractors of America recently outlined five key recommendations for the Trump administration during a Jan. 8 Construction Outlook Webinar. They are:
Eliminate labor shortages
The results of AGC’s annual outlook survey continue to highlight those of the industry workforce issues.
To address these gaps, AGC highlighted the need new temporary work visa programs adapted to the construction sector.
“In the short term, we call on the new administration to work with Congress to establish new temporary work visa programs dedicated to the construction industry,” AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson said during the webinar . “This will allow companies a way to provide legal workers so they can keep pace with important economic development projects like infrastructure improvements and the construction of new semiconductor and manufacturing facilities.”
In Kansas City, large-scale projects including data centers and Panasonic’s $4 billion electric vehicle battery facility illustrate the scale of these labor challengessaid webinar panelist Andy Heitmann, vice president of operations for New York City-based Turner Construction.
“We have a lot of work pressure, not just for the front-line commercial worker, but also for the professional staff,” Heitmann said. “For example, on one project here, we had about 4,000 workers coming through the door to work on a project, six days a week. [Of those workers,] we had about 40% travelers, and when I say travelers, that’s 48 of the 50 states. We have workers who come from everywhere.”
The situation in Florida reflects similar challenges, exacerbated by a lack of skilled labor, said panelist Rex Kirby, president and CEO of Verdex Construction, a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based general contractor.
“We have a great workforce, a hard-working workforce, but it’s a very low-skilled workforce, so it takes a lot more oversight on our part to get the job done,” Kirby said. “So there’s definitely fear because we have a mostly immigrant workforce. They’ll often ask our teams in the field like, ‘Hey, are they going to try to send me home?’ And of course we’re saying no.”
AGC also called for greater investment in high school and high school construction training programs through the Stronger Workforce for America Act and the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.
“The attraction of people coming into our industry is improving, but we’re way behind,” Heitmann said. “I think we have a long way to go.”
Avoid fees
Fees remain a major concern for contractors, especially with Trump’s promises on the subjectsaid Jeffrey Shoaf, CEO of AGC, during the webinar.
“The incoming administration’s new talk about tariffs has people worried about critical elements of construction projects in the U.S.,” Shoaf said. “We’re going to make sure the administration knows what they are to try to mitigate the impact of the tariffs on contractors across the country.”
General tariffs could further strain the supply chain, especially for specialty equipment and electrical equipment, said panelist Norbert Schulz, vice president of marketing and business development for Filanc, an Escondido, Calif.-based general contractor.
“There are numerous types of specialized treatment equipment, pumps, valves and the like, that come from overseas that would be subject to tariffs,” Schulz said. “And they tend to be the highest dollar value ticket items in terms of equipment for our work.”
Heitmann echoed those concerns.
“The megaprojects have the electrical work that Norbert was referring to. I have 500 air handlers on one project,” Heitmann said. “Honestly, the prices are high because it’s a lot of work.”
Accelerate permission
AGC called on the administration to address permit delays holding up critical projects.
“The good news is that the incoming president has the authority he needs to quickly expedite federal reviews,” Simonson said. “If President Trump moves quickly to streamline the permitting process, many backlogged projects should see a quick start to construction.”
The Project Stress Index, a measure of construction projects that have been stalled, abandoned or have a delayed bid date, it fell 7.4% in December. However, that number remains 5.6% above 2021 levels, according to Cincinnati-based ConstructConnect. Backlog projects also rose 6.2% in December, the data showed.
Expand participation in federal projects
The organization also called for rescinding President Joe Biden’s executive order mandating project labor agreements for federal projects that exceed $35 million. The group argued that the measure restricts two-thirds of the construction workforce from participating in federally funded projects.
“President Trump should take immediate action to remove limits on who can work on federal construction projects,” Simonson said. “Measure her severely [undermines] the capacity to build the nation”.
Support infrastructure projects
Infrastructure investment remains a critical area of focus for contractors, with optimism about future projects, Shoaf said.
“There’s a lot of talk about spending cuts, but it doesn’t seem to be in the infrastructure space,” Shoaf said. “The Biden administration invested a lot of money in infrastructure, the Trump administration four years ago invested a lot of money in infrastructure. I don’t see that changing now and neither do the contractors. They see it as an area where there are projects going and there’s more good news to come.”
For example, Florida has seen an increase in infrastructure and public sector projects, Kirby said.
“There’s a lot of public sector work now and actually a lot of school work and school renovation work because of the age of some of the schools across the state,” Kirby said. “Now they’re starting to come back and invest money to bring them not only to security measures, but also to do some maintenance on these facilities.”
