Over 2 Million More Construction Workers Needed to Combat Low Housing Inventory

Historic labor and supply shortages are limiting the number of available homes on the market, leaving few affordable options for home buyers. To combat a major housing crisis, the construction industry will need to hire over 2 million more workers over the next three years, Insider reports.

As demand for new homes grows, a lack of skilled construction labor continues to limit inventory and affordability. Unless the industry can make over 60,000 new hires per month, a waning workforce will further suspend a national housing shortage.

The construction industry needs over 2 million more workers over the next three years to keep up with booming demand for new houses amid the labor shortage, according to the Home Builder Institute.

HBI said in a labor-market report Thursday that a lack of skilled construction labor was a crucial limiting factor for expanding home construction and improving housing inventory and affordability. HBI is the National Association of Home Builders’ nonprofit partner that provides training for the building industry.

The industry needs 61,000 new workers per month over the next three years to keep up with demand, totalling 2.2 million new hires, the report said. The institute based the figure on the average annual number of occupational openings in construction, which NAHB calculated by analyzing Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“That’s a staggering number,” HBI president and CEO Ed Brady said in a press release accompanying the report.