
Contractors are feeling generally bullish about conditions and business opportunities for the duration of 2025, reveals a new industry survey, even as concerns about labor shortages persist.
The survey, A Year in the Balance: The 2025 Construction Hiring and Business Outlook, produced by the Associated General Contractors and Sage Construction and Real Estate, which has offices in Austin, among other cities, said respondents generally see good times ahead in many project sectors.
Among those sectors: water and sewer projects, as well as utility power projects. The respondents also indicated optimism in health care construction, particularly in the building of new clinics, testing facilities, and medical labs.
Similar high hopes were expressed for work in federally funded infrastructure projects, a positive response, significantly higher than what was recorded a year ago.
In a statement, Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist, remarked: “One reason contractors have a relatively positive outlook for many public sector market segments is that more contractors are starting to see the effects of increased federal investment in infrastructure.”
Responding companies across the country expect to see increased work, particularly in the data center, power, and transportation sectors.
Despite the overall good feelings, some 62% of respondents pointed to rising labor costs as one of their top concerns in 2025, closely followed by 59% who listed an “insufficient supply of workers or subcontractors” as something to worry about.
While nervous about President-elect Trump’s threat to increase tariffs on a wide variety of imports, most respondents were feeling generally hopeful about prospects in a new Trump administration.
“It will be a good year for the construction industry if the Trump administration works with us to find a way to address materials shortages, avoid materials price inflation, remove limits on who can work on federal projects, and streamline the permitting process,” remarked Jeffrey Shoaf, AGC’s chief executive officer, in summing up the mood of the survey’s respondents.
January 14, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy Pixabay