WASHINGTON, June 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Associated Builders and Contractors today released its 2024 Workforce Development Survey, which found its member contractors invested $1.6 billion to provide craft, leadership and health and safety education to more than 1.3 million course attendees nationwide in 2023, up from $1.5 billion in 2022 and on track with $1.6 billion in 2021.
Other key findings include:
“ABC member contractors not only build and rebuild structures with excellence, but they also help build lifelong, durable, transferable skill sets for their employees by investing billions to cultivate their career progression in commercial and industrial construction,” said Greg Sizemore, ABC’s vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development. “This investment is in response to the need for more than half a million additional construction workers in 2024 alone. Workforce development is part of the culture of ABC member contractors, which continue to choose flexible, competency-based and market-driven methods to upskill their workforces. Construction is among the few industries where an individual can become an apprentice, earn a paycheck while learning the skills needed for their chosen craft and receive a portable, industry-recognized credential that will further their career.”
The annual workforce development survey quantifies the scope of ABC members’ education and upskilling initiatives to advance their employees’ careers in commercial and industrial construction to build the places where we gather, live, work, learn and heal.
ABC’s all-of-the-above approach to upskilling has produced a network of more than 800 apprenticeship, craft, health and safety and management education programs—including more than 450 government-registered apprenticeship programs across 20 different occupations—in order to develop a safe, skilled and productive workforce. ABC chapters also have 328 entry-point programs in place nationally to welcome all to begin a career in construction. Members contribute about $500,000 annually to ABC’s Trimmer Construction Education Fund to support the development of a skilled, safe and sustainable workforce through grants awarded to its chapters.
Industry consulting firm FMI conducted the 2024 Workforce Development Survey from Jan. 4 to May 20, 2024. Aggregated data was derived by calculating the average amount spent on education by each respondent and multiplying that by the total number of ABC contractor members.
Erika Walter
Associated Builders and Contractors
(202) 905-2104
ewalter@abc.org