Newsline

ABC Vice President of Regulatory, Labor and State Affairs Ben Brubeck was recently interviewed on Fox News’ “America Reports” explaining the construction industry’s labor shortage and how that will affect the massive injection of capital into infrastructure under recently passed legislation.

“It’s the result of a perfect storm of regulatory, demographic and economic issues all happening together,” said Brubeck, citing the skilled labor shortage of half a million workers in 2023, according to ABC.

“We’re seeing 40% cost increases in construction materials prices since before the pandemic,” said Brubeck. “We’re also seeing some Biden administration policies that are increasing the cost of construction and artificially exacerbating the skilled labor shortage.”

ABC and its 68 chapters are working hard to attract new talent into the industry through various pathways appealing to different populations, said Brubeck. ABC offers more than 300 government-registered apprenticeship programs across the country. ABC is also recruiting veterans, reentering citizens, careers switchers and young people into the industry.