Worcester Business Journal

16 Worcester Business Journal | June 16, 2025 | wbjournal.com F O C U S MIDYEAR ECONOMIC FORECAST Long plagued by labor shortages, local construction officials are trying to stem the pain caused by a population drop and Trump's anti-immigrant campaign PHOTOS | COURTESY OF STEVE SULLIVAN AT BUILDING MASS CAREERS Keeping construction working BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor M assachusetts' pop- ulation is aging, as Baby Boomers reach retirement age and relatively low birth rates among younger generations have failed to make up the gap. Immigrants have played an important role in making up for this population shortfall, but the expected drastic changes in the number of immigrants entering the country may shut off that supply of workers. ese demographics mean a number of key industries across the state face labor shortages, with future shis in populations expecting to make the issue an even greater challenge. e state's labor force is projected to grow 6.7% from 2020 to 2050, less than half the rate of 15% seen between 1990 and 2020, ac- cording to population projections from the UMass Donahue Institute. is labor crunch is particularly concerning for the construction indus- try and its task to help build the state out of its persistent housing shortage. ere's plenty of work to be done, but not enough workers to do it, said Steve Sullivan, director of workplace de- velopment for the trade group As- sociated Builders and Contractors of Massachusetts. "We're one of the oldest parts of the country, so all of our infrastruc- ture is antiquated," Sullivan said. "We have to do a lot of retrofitting, plus Massachusetts is considered one of the biotech capitals of the world, which takes a lot of piping, electrical, clean rooms, and other con- struction work. You've got to focus on recruiting new faces to the construction industry." Even though the amount of Ameri- cans employed in the construction field has climbed 12.3% since 2021, from 7.4 million to 8.3 million, according to seasonally-adjusted data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there remains a persistent undersupply of labor in the industry. e construction space must attract almost 500,000 new workers this year to meet expected demand, according to a January report from the Associated Builders and Contractors, a national construction trade association. In Massachusetts, the industry has not mirrored the national growth in workers and has actually seen a decrease of about 7,400 construction workers since 2023, according to BLS. Workforce cliff "It's something we've been committed to for decades, trying to bring people into the workforce and build that work- force up," said Dave Fontaine Jr., CEO of Fontaine Bros., a large construction firm with offices in Springfield and Worcester. "ere's an aging workforce right now, right along with a lot of blue-collar jobs." e issue, which has been persistent in the construction industry since the Great Recession, will get worse, said Sullivan. "Our industry is facing a work- force cliff," Sullivan told attendees at a MetroWest Economic Research Center conference held on the topic of the state's aging population in May. "Many sea- soned professionals are retiring, taking with them decades of experience, skill, and knowledge. Frankly they've earned it, aer years of physically demanding labor. But the void they leave behind is massive. What's oen overlooked is just how foundational construction is to the rest of the economy." About 66% of firms report project de- lays due to labor shortages, according to a 2022 survey by the Associated General Contractors of America. While other factors, including rising material costs, Steve Sullivan, director of workforce development at Associated Builders and Contractors of Massachusetts David Fontaine Jr., CEO of Fontaine Bros. Organizations like Building Mass Careers are working to bring more workers into the construction industry but are facing an uphill battle due to demographic changes in the state.

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