Construction Hiring Trends for 2026–2027

A labor shortage, rising costs and a push toward software, drones and prefabrication topped the trend lists a few years ago. The labor shortage is still on the list, but the reasons behind it have changed, and so has where the work is. Below is what is shaping executive and leadership hiring in construction and infrastructure going into 2027, with figures from primary sources.

The market is flat overall and split underneath

Census put total construction spending in August 2026 at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,203.1 billion, 1.7 percent below August 2025. For the first eight months of the year, spending ran 3.1 percent below the same period in 2025. Residential was down 4.1 percent and nonresidential down 2.4 percent over those eight months.

Employment held up better than spending. BLS counts 8.364 million construction jobs in September 2026, up 109,000 from a year earlier. That gap, falling dollars and rising headcount, is why hiring managers describe the market as odd. Companies are not cutting the people who run work. They are still trying to add them, in the specific places where work is growing.

What matters for hiring is the split by sector.

Trend 1: Data centers and power pull leadership toward a few markets

Census data for the first eight months of 2026 shows where money is going. Against the same period in 2025:

Census does not break data centers out in this release. ACEC's read of the same data is that the office, power and communications categories capture or support data center investment, and that the shift is from manufacturing toward digital infrastructure. The table fits that reading.

For hiring, this means three things to plan for.

• Mission-critical experience is scarce. Project executives, senior project managers and superintendents who have delivered high-density electrical and mechanical work are being recruited against each other. A resume full of office towers and hospitals does not substitute for it in these searches.
• Power and utility-scale work needs its own leaders. Power construction is one of the few categories growing in both the private and public columns of the Census data. Preconstruction, estimating and operations leaders with substation, transmission or generation backgrounds are in demand.
• Location matters more. Data center and energy projects cluster in particular regions. Employers in those regions should expect to pay for relocation, because the candidates with the right experience are often somewhere else.

ABC's chief economist ties the other side of this to labor costs, expecting faster cost increases for electricians and HVAC workers as data center demand continues while residential work is weak.

Trend 2: Manufacturing construction is the sharp decline

Manufacturing construction spending fell 21.8 percent over the first eight months of 2026, to $115.8 billion from $148.2 billion, per Census. The large plants that began in 2022 through 2024 are finishing, and fewer projects of that size are starting behind them.

This is a hiring story in two directions. Executives whose recent experience is industrial and manufacturing projects are available in larger numbers, and many of them can move into adjacent work: power, water, heavy civil and data center. Employers who need that skill set should look at those candidates earlier than they did in 2023. For candidates, the practical step is to rewrite a resume around transferable scope, such as schedule control on a fast-track, self-performed MEP package, and not around the end user's industry.

Trend 3: Public work is steady, and the federal program is up for renewal

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) shapes a large share of public work, and its timeline is part of the hiring picture. Census shows August 2026 highway construction at $150.6 billion on an annual-rate basis, and public nonresidential spending up 1.2 percent over the first eight months, with transportation up 4.1 percent and highway and street up 2.7 percent.

The IIJA's surface transportation authorities were due to expire on September 30, 2026, and its advance appropriations cover only fiscal years 2022 through 2026. Congress bought time rather than passing a new bill: the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027 extended those authorities through December 11, 2026, while the House's replacement highway bill still needs floor votes. Owners with federal-aid programs are planning around that short runway.

The funding uncertainty argues for selective hiring on public work. Candidates with design-build, CM at-risk and progressive design-build experience on public projects are the ones getting calls. If federal funding lapses after the current authorization, it would show up in lettings later, and firms that wait for clarity before hiring will be hiring at the same time as everyone else who waited.

Trend 4: Retirements now account for most of the demand

Baby boomers with the experience to fill executive roles have been heading toward retirement for years, and that is now the main driver in the numbers. ABC's January 2026 model estimates the industry must attract 349,000 net new workers in 2026 and 456,000 in 2027, and ABC's chief economist says a majority of 2026 demand comes from retirements and not from added work. ABC also notes that about one-fifth of electricians are over 55.

The leadership pipeline is also thin by BLS's own projections. The Occupational Outlook Handbook lists 609,100 construction manager jobs in 2025, a median pay of $114,990, and projected growth of 9 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 49,700 openings a year, most from people leaving the occupation or the workforce.

What owners and employers are doing about it:

1. Succession planning that names people. Founders and long-tenured presidents are asking for a second-in-command with a defined path, often a COO or an executive vice president of operations, and not another project executive.
2. Overlap hires. Bringing in a successor six to eighteen months before a retirement, with a written plan for handing over relationships and bonding.
3. Retiree consulting arrangements for the people who are not ready to stop.

If you are a candidate in your late 30s to 40s, this is the more favorable part of the market. Companies know the next layer of leadership is smaller than the one leaving.

Trend 5: The shortage is now about candidate quality and credentials

In AGC and NCCER's 2026 workforce survey, 87% of firms had openings for hourly craft positions and 82% had openings for salaried positions. Among firms with salaried openings, 87% said those roles were as hard or harder to fill than a year earlier, and 41% said harder. Half of respondents said available candidates lack the skills, certificates or licenses they need.

The 2025 survey shows which salaried roles are hardest to fill, as a share of firms trying to fill them (AGC and NCCER, 2025):

The same 2025 survey found that 48% of firms said new hires fail to show up or quit shortly after starting, and that 30% of firms use worker search firms or professional employer organizations to supplement recruiting. Larger firms are more likely to use online recruiting and school programs than smaller ones, so smaller contractors are competing for leadership talent with less recruiting infrastructure.

Trend 6: Immigration enforcement is part of the labor picture

Roughly 29% of respondents to AGC and NCCER's 2026 survey reported at least one direct or indirect impact from immigration enforcement in the past six months. Twelve percent said workers left or failed to appear because of actual or rumored immigration actions, and 16% said subcontractors lost workers. The share varied by region, from 17% in the Midwest to 42% in the South.

For leadership hiring, the effect is indirect and shows up in what employers ask for. Superintendents and general foremen who can keep a self-perform crew staffed, and project executives who can manage subcontractor default risk, are weighted more heavily in searches than they were three years ago. Subcontractor prequalification and trade-partner relationships have become a hiring criterion.

Trend 7: Technology and AI are now a staffing question

Project management software, drones, wearables and virtual reality were once trends to watch. Most of that is now ordinary. The change that matters for hiring is that technology has become a role to fill.

In the 2025 AGC and NCCER survey, 47% of firms looking for AI personnel said they were hard to find, up from 30% a year before. Contractors are also slightly more positive about AI and robotics: 45% expect a positive effect on construction jobs by automating manual, error-prone tasks, and 12% expect AI to eliminate jobs, down from 17% in 2023.

In practice this means roles like director of virtualization or VDC, construction technology manager, and data and analytics lead. Employers filling these jobs tend to want someone with field experience who can run a rollout and get superintendents to use the tool.

What this means if you are hiring

• Decide which market you are in. A company building data centers or power facilities is competing for a small pool nationally. A company dependent on manufacturing or commercial work has more candidates available than it did two years ago.
• Plan succession now. A retirement date is a recruiting timeline. Executive searches take time, and overlap is worth the cost.
• Pay for scarce skills. Mission-critical project leaders and superintendents are the ones in short supply, according to AGC and NCCER's 2025 survey.
• Budget for relocation. Candidates with the right experience are frequently in a different region than the work.

What this means if you are a candidate

• Name your scope. Contract value, project type, self-perform share and delivery method are what hiring managers screen on.
• Look at adjacent sectors. Manufacturing and commercial experience carries into data center, power and water work when it is described in terms of what you ran.
• Add one technology credential you actually used, such as a scheduling platform rollout or a VDC process, and say what changed.
• Expect the conversation to include succession. Many open leadership roles exist because someone is retiring.

If you are hiring for construction or infrastructure leadership, start at our employer page; if you are weighing a move, see /career-seekers and the positions we recruit. For related reading, see the construction talent shortage and what executive construction roles pay. You can also contact us.