Cities With the Youngest (and Oldest) Construction Workers

The construction industry is struggling to attract young workers, contributing to a persistent labor shortage. Demand for new home construction continues to be high, and many construction companies are unable to find the workers needed in order to meet demand. As the share of young construction workers declines, the construction workforce is getting older. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age of construction workers was 41 in 2019, up from 39 a decade prior.

As fewer young people enter the industry, the share of older construction workers has increased. Compared to 2009, there were 330,000 fewer construction workers aged 20 to 29 in 2019, while there were 312,000 more workers aged 60 or older. While there isn’t one obvious reason for these changes, industry experts point to the decline in high school vocational programs and that construction firms hired fewer young people during the Great Recession—changes that have prevented young workers from gaining experience in the industry.

Chart1 Construction workers skew older now than a decade ago

TRENDING ON CONSTRUCTION COVERAGE

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While once popular with young workers, the construction industry now skews older than some other industries that attract young people. The median age of workers in the hospitality industry is 30, while the median age of retail workers is 36. The median age of workers across all industries is 41, the same as in construction.

Construction workers skew older in some cities and states than in others—while the median age of construction workers is 41 at the national level, the age distribution of construction workers varies geographically. At the regional level, construction workers in the Northeast tend to be older while there are more young construction workers in the Great Plains states. North Dakota, Utah, and Alaska have the youngest construction workforces, with a median age of 36 in these states. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the median construction worker age is 46 in Maine, the oldest in the country.

Chart2 Construction workers in the Northeast tend to be older

To find the metropolitan areas with the youngest and oldest construction workers in the U.S., researchers at Construction Coverage, a review website for construction management software and builders risk insurance, analyzed the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The researchers ranked metro areas according to the median age of construction workers. Researchers also calculated the share of construction workers under 30, the share of construction workers over 50, and the total number of construction workers in the labor force.

To improve relevance, only metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 people were included in the analysis. Additionally, metro areas were grouped into the following cohorts based on population size:

Small metros: 100,000-349,999
Midsize metros: 350,000-999,999
Large metros: 1,000,000 or more

Here are the metros with the youngest and oldest construction workers.