Construction workers saw median hourly wages climb 21.1% from 2021 to 2024, which is more than double the 8.2% median pay increase across all job types over the time frame, according to a recent report by LendingTree.
At the same time, the online lending marketplace reports that the overall number of construction jobs rose 8.8% during that period, which lags the 9.4% growth rate across all industries.
LendingTree sees those diverging trends as indicative of the obstacles facing home builders — which, in turn, has led to affordability challenges for prospective homebuyers.
“When the cost of building a new home goes up, the price of that home is probably going to go up, too,” observes Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst. “That’s true whether you’re talking about the costs of labor, supplies or anything else that goes into building a home. It all adds up to make homebuilding more expensive, which means higher home prices for consumers.”
Builders in Pennsylvania are struggling the most, according to LendingTree, which found that hourly wages among construction workers in the Keystone State increased by 21.5% from 2021 to 2024 while construction employment grew by just 0.4%.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Idaho saw construction wages grow just 14.4% during that four-year span, while construction jobs increased by 23.7%, which was more than twice the state’s overall jobs growth rate of 11.6%. LendingTree cites Idaho’s recent population surge and corresponding spike in housing demand as reasons for the state’s healthy construction industry.
But LendingTree’s overall findings are in line with a research study released last month by the University of Denver in collaboration with the Home Builders Institute and the National Association of Home Builders. It found that the nationwide construction labor shortage costs builders about $10.8 billion per year due to longer construction timelines — with those cost overruns resulting in about 19,000 fewer single-family homes being constructed in 2024.
