Post-pandemic construction jobs up in Wisconsin, report says

MADISON, Wis. — While other industries are struggling to reclaim jobs after the pandemic, the construction workforce successfully bounced back in the last three years.

That’s according to a report released by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which measured the state’s job recovery after the pandemic. Construction employment was 8.3% higher in 2023 than in 2019, according to the report.

Wisconsin’s job market made a strong recovery from the pandemic overall, with higher total employment in 2023 than ever before and an unemployment rate below the national average, the report showed. However, employment in most counties was still lower in 2023 than in 2019 and some sectors, such as manufacturing, haven’t fully recovered, the report added.

State employment averaged over 2.9 million in 2023, which was 1.2% higher than in 2019, the report noted.

Construction gained 12,007 jobs in Wisconsin between 2019 and 2023, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. The sector was just ahead of the professional, scientific and technical services and transportation and warehousing sectors, and researchers said the sectors that bounced back were already growing fast before the pandemic.

Construction job growth was distributed throughout the state and led with more than 6,600 workers employed joining specialty trade contractors, the report showed. The demand for construction workers is high as many workers retire and a nationwide need for housing production. In Dane County, expanding the construction workforce is identified as a critical need to meet demand for housing development.

Manufacturing lost 8,759 jobs in Wisconsin between 2019 and 2023, the most in the entire state, the report showed. The number of manufacturers in the state declined by 436 (or 4.7%) and the state manufacturing gross domestic product growth trailed over all GDP growth, the report added.

Union construction industry sees employment growth as a bright spot

For the union construction industry, employment continues to be a bright spot for the community, said Chris Mambu Rasch, the executive director of Building Advantage. Mambu Rasch said the influx of work is in part spurred by federal programs such as the American Rescue Plan Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“The reason it continues to grow is because there is work out there,” Mambu Rasch said. “There may be slow spots in some parts of the industry, and certainly an office slowdown because of COVID-19, work from home and companies being more efficient on how they use space. But, on the whole, the construction industry and union construction has been the busiest we’ve been in a while,” he added.

The momentum will continue as money from BIL, the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the latter including clean energy tax credits, starts to come in, Mambu Rasch noted.

The Biden-Harris Administration on Friday announced it will use $3 billion to incentivize electric vehicle battery plants throughout the country. Those federal dollars are expected to continue to hit Wisconsin and the rest of the U.S., affecting the construction industry, Mambu Rasch added.

“We’re seeing a generational amount of work right before us and will be coming in the next 10 years,” Mambu Rasch said.

With the current market share of union construction in Milwaukee, Dan Bukiewicz of the Milwaukee Building & Construction Trades Council said he wasn’t surprised.

With projects such as the Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee enacting programs such as the Residents Preference Program and self-imposed goals for minority contracting, there are more opportunities for new people to enter the industry, Bukiewicz said.

“More importantly, it was Milwaukee and the whole [Wisconsin Center District] board taking a chance on bond to say, ‘Yes, we need to expand it.’ That’s the thinking going forward,” he added.