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Labor Shortage Spikes Construction Costs

Evident in markets such as San Francisco and New York City for some time, the dearth of qualified workers “has now become a national issue,” says Julian Anderson of Rider Levett Bucknall.

By Paul Bubny | paulbubny | Updated on October 20, 2017

Julian Anderson of Rider Leavitt Bucknall Anderson: “Unless there’s a slowdown, at some point over the next 12 to 18 months it’s going to happen.”

NEW YORK CITY—The coming year or two could be a momentous time for the construction trades, and therefore the contractors that employ them and, in turn, the developers that hire the contractors. It’s within that time frame that the spikes in construction costs deriving from a chronic shortage of qualified labor could become more acute.

“It’s a trend that has been coming for some time and has been exacerbated in different locations, but has now become a national issue,” Julian Anderson, president of consulting firm Rider Levett Bucknall, tells GlobeSt.com. The current shortage—widely acknowledged in the construction industry—had its origins in the peak of the previous cycle, he says.

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