A company that wants to maintain and grow a sustainable, profitable business must attract and retain the best talent. But as you know, our industry is experiencing a chronic workforce supply challenge that is limiting the pipeline of talent, with ABC projecting a historic 501,000 job openings in 2024 and 454,000 next year.
Given this, I remain confounded by the absence of a market- and merit-based worker visa system. Let’s take a practitioner’s view of what such a system might look like.
Market-based: A market-based system would allow employers to apply for the number of visas they need and as they know the market demands. They know how many workers they need today and (based on their project pipeline) in the future, and already advertise, post jobs, attend career fairs, offer employee-referral incentives, use search firms and hire through temporary work agencies. And those seeking employment would tap into all of that as they pursued their career dreams.
Merit based: Provided there are no artificial, government-imposed labor restrictions, employers in a merit-based system are—and would continue to be—incentivized to attract and retain the best talent. They interview candidates, validate competencies, check references, examine work histories, conduct drug tests (where legal) and validate legal status (as required through the federal I-9 process)—all in an effort to hire the best talent available.
The government’s role in this process would be to provide a legal status for the workforce and a legal means for employers to withhold for taxes, Social Security and Medicare. They would issue worker visa numbers and photo IDs, conduct security screenings and provide a record-keeping system—which could be E-Verify, the government platform that is already familiar to employers.
The market-based and merit-based components already exist. We just need to get the government to recognize this, leverage the existing E-Verify system, do their job of providing legal status for those who want to work in the United States and collect the proper withholdings.
For a W2 construction worker making the industry’s average hourly rate of $37.55, the government would collect $21,164 in federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare withholdings and employer-paid taxes. Multiply that by this year’s 501,000 job openings and you get $10.6 billion—from our industry alone.
Construction’s talent shortage is a serious national problem, and this is a solution that makes practical and financial sense.
