Study: Immigrant Labor Critical to Homebuilding and Remodeling in Major U.S. Metro Areas
An analysis from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that immigrants play an outsized role in the construction workforce in metropolitan areas with the highest levels of homebuilding and remodeling. While foreign-born workers make up about 20% of the overall U.S. workforce, they account for roughly one-third of construction trades workers nationally, with even higher shares in major building markets.
In the seven metro regions that issued at least 150,000 building permits from 2019 to 2023, foreign-born craftspeople accounted for 54% of the skilled trades workforce. Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington led the nation in permits and had a whopping 61% immigrant share in construction trades. Even smaller permit markets showed disproportionate reliance on immigrant labor compared with their overall workforce.
Immigrant workers are also central to remodeling activity. In the five metros with the highest remodeling expenditures, they made up an average of 57% of the trades workforce, compared with 36% in the other metros with available data. Chicago, for example, ranks modestly in new construction but high in remodeling, with immigrants representing 38% of its trades workforce.
The study warns that a recent slowdown in immigration could tighten already strained labor markets in construction, further challenging the industry’s ability to build and update housing amid persistent shortages.
