Ajax, one of the things Breitbart and Fox likely aren't telling you is that like a lot of countries, the USA has a problem with an aging workforce. Not enough young people to take the baton. You're not going to build houses with 70-year-old workers. So you know what that means, right? Immigration.
Since the end of the Great Recession, the share of construction workers aged 25-54 has dropped 8%, while the share of those 55 and over has risen, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors. Twenty percent of workers are 55 and older, and 61 is the average retirement age — meaning a fifth of the industry is at risk of leaving within the next six years.
Over the next half a year, Grandy said he thinks labor issues will become the driving force for cost increases. With a sector unemployment rate at 3.8%, he said, there is simply nowhere to go to meet rising demand. The current immigration shortage also significantly reduces the amount of talent that can readily fill empty jobs.
Grandy said the best, more immediate way to fill the gap is to promote more immigration — there are a lot of workers in other countries who would gladly come to the U.S. for a shot at greater, and rising, hourly wages. But the stalled nature of immigration reform, amid a series of current political crises, makes significant change unlikely.
So this is what you wanted, right? Not enough workers means wages are increasing in the construction industry for white American workers. But the tradeoff will always be higher prices.