Share Of Immigrant Workers In Construction Hits New Record High

The number of immigrant workers in the construction industry has sharply risen in recent years, showing how the industry has increasingly relied on the very people who could be the targets of President-elect Donald Trump's promised mass deportation campaign.

Of the 11.9 million-strong U.S. construction workforce at the end of 2023, 3 million were immigrants, the highest number of immigrant workers in construction ever recorded by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, according to a report this week by the National Association of Home Builders.

In 2022, construction attracted approximately 130,000 new immigrant workers, more than the combined total of new immigrants in 2018 and 2019. 

Last year, immigrants made up 25.5% of the construction workforce, a historic high, compared to 24.7% in 2022. Despite a growing labor force overall, the number of native-born workers is more than a half-million below the peak levels seen during the housing boom in the mid-2000s, according to the report.

“Immigrants continue to play an important role in the construction workforce. The latest data show that the share of immigrants in construction reached a new historic high of 25.5%,” NAHB CEO Jim Tobin told Bisnow in a written statement. “In construction trades, the share of immigrants remains even higher, with one in three craftsmen coming from outside the U.S.”

Typically, the rise of immigrants in construction correlates with the increased demand for homebuilding. However, in 2022, despite the addition of more than 120,000 foreign-born workers, this trend was not reflected, as homebuilding activity actually decreased.

In 2017, Trump's first year in office, the number of single-family homes that started construction rose, while the number of incoming immigrants dropped, according to the NAHB.

In some states, the reliance on immigrant workers is higher, at 40% of the construction workforce in California and Texas, according to a prior NAHB report. 

As of 2023, excluding construction, immigrant workers comprise 17% of the workforce, the highest share recorded by the ACS, according to NAHB.

Associated General Contractors Vice President of Public Affairs Brian Turmail told Bisnow in September that a policy of mass deportations “from an economic point of view, it's somewhere between economic suicide and a recipe for putting inflation on steroids.”

Trump confirmed Monday, through his social media platform Truth Social, that he intends to declare a national emergency and use the U.S. military to assist in his plans for mass deportation once he enters the White House, the BBC reported.

The construction industry is projected to take the hardest hit amid a potential mass deportation, according to a report by Axios. The report stated that 75% of voters believe undocumented immigrants fill jobs American citizens don’t want. Industries like construction, agriculture, healthcare and hospitality would face labor shortages without foreign-born workers.

Mass deportations could lead to a loss of about 4.2% to 6.8% of annual gross domestic product, amounting to what could be a more than $1.1T impact, according to an American Immigration Council report. That would be equivalent to the economic loss of the Great Recession.