AGC's 2026 Workforce Survey: What the Labor Shortage Means for Your Fleet

Every contractor we talk to already knows finding good people is hard. It comes up almost as often as equipment questions do — a superintendent mentions he's running a crew two operators short, or a demolition contractor says he turned down a bid because he couldn't staff it, not because he couldn't finance the equipment for it. That anecdotal pattern is exactly what AGC's new numbers confirm at scale. What the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) just quantified, in its 2026 Workforce Survey Analysis covering responses from 1,830 construction firms collected in July and August 2026, is exactly how hard — and which trades are hurting the most. If you run an excavation crew, a demolition outfit, or a specialty subcontracting business, this survey is describing your hiring headaches with uncomfortable precision.

The Numbers Nobody Wanted to See Get Worse

87% of firms report open positions for hourly craft workers right now — operators, laborers, equipment techs, the people who actually run and maintain the machines on your jobsite. Of those firms with openings, 88% say those positions are as hard or harder to fill than they were a year ago. That's not a plateau. That's a labor market still tightening even as some segments of construction demand cool off.

It's not limited to the field, either. 82% of firms report open salaried positions (project managers, estimators, superintendents), and 87% of those firms say those roles are equally difficult to fill. Half of respondents — 50% — say the candidates they do see simply aren't qualified: they lack the skills, certifications, or licenses the job requires.

Which Trades Are Hurting Worst

AGC's survey breaks difficulty down by specific craft occupation, and the results should sound familiar to anyone who's tried to hire in the last two years:

• Electricians — 81% of firms report difficulty filling these roles

• Mechanics and equipment technicians — 79% report difficulty, a number that matters directly to every fleet owner reading this, since a shortage of qualified techs means longer turnaround on repairs and more pressure to keep equipment running reliable and well-maintained rather than deferred

• HVAC technicians — 77% report difficulty

Notice what these three trades have in common: they all require real, hands-on technical training that isn't quick to replicate. You can't shortcut your way into being a competent diesel mechanic or a licensed electrician. That's exactly why AGC's broader finding — that immigration enforcement is affecting nearly a third of firms' workforce planning, on top of ongoing retirements pulling experienced tradespeople out of the workforce — compounds the problem instead of being a separate issue from it.

What This Means for How You Run Your Fleet

Here's the part that connects directly to equipment decisions: when you can't find or keep enough skilled operators and mechanics, the machines you already own have to work harder and last longer, because adding headcount to run more equipment isn't a given the way it might have been a decade ago. That changes the calculus on what you buy and how you finance it.

• Equipment with better factory ergonomics, simpler controls, and lower operator fatigue is a genuine competitive advantage right now — a machine that's easier to run well helps you get more out of a thinner, less experienced bench of operators

• Reliability and uptime matter more than ever when your mechanic bench is stretched thin (79% of firms report difficulty filling mechanic roles) — a machine with a strong factory service network and remote diagnostics reduces the burden on an already-short maintenance staff

• Financing newer equipment over running older machines into the ground is partly a labor-market decision now, not just a cash-flow one: older equipment breaks more often and needs more skilled hands to keep it running, exactly the resource you're most short on

Immigration Enforcement and Retirements: The Two Forces Compounding the Shortage

AGC's survey flags a detail that doesn't get enough attention outside the trade press: immigration enforcement activity is affecting nearly a third of construction firms' workforce planning directly, pulling experienced workers out of crews with little notice and making some firms more hesitant to hire in the first place. At the same time, the industry is losing a wave of experienced tradespeople to retirement, taking decades of accumulated equipment knowledge and craft skill with them. Neither of these is a short-term blip that a good hiring season fixes.

Put those two forces together with the raw numbers — 87% of firms short on craft labor, 88% saying it's getting harder, not easier — and you get a workforce environment that's likely to stay tight for years, not quarters. That's the backdrop against which every equipment decision this year should be made: not "how do we staff up to match our fleet," but "how do we spec our fleet to match the staff we can actually get and keep."

The Training and Retention Angle

AGC's own recommendations lean heavily on training partnerships, apprenticeship expansion, and signing bonuses — all real, all worth pursuing. But there's an equipment-side lever that gets less attention: the machines themselves are part of your recruiting and retention pitch. A newer fleet with modern cabs, climate control, camera systems, and intuitive joystick controls is a genuinely easier sell to a 24-year-old operator candidate than a worn-out machine from a decade ago with none of that. In a labor market this tight, that's not a cosmetic upgrade — it's a real factor in whether a good hire takes your offer over a competitor's.

By Trade: What the Shortage Actually Looks Like

• Demolition and site-prep contractors — labor shortages here often hit hardest on skilled equipment operation rather than general labor, since running a large excavator or a specialized demolition attachment safely takes real training time. Consolidating scope onto fewer, more capable machines run by your most experienced operators is often more realistic than trying to hire and train new operators fast enough to keep pace with bid volume.

• Roofing and building envelope subs — while roofing crews are less equipment-heavy than site work, the mechanics and technicians shortage still bites when it comes to keeping support equipment (dump trailers, compressors, material handlers) running; budgeting for newer, lower-maintenance equipment reduces exposure to that specific gap.

• General contractors managing subcontractor scopes — GCs feel this shortage indirectly but painfully, through subs who can't staff their own crews and slip schedules as a result. There's not much a GC can do about a sub's hiring problem directly, but understanding it explains a lot of the scheduling friction showing up on jobs right now that has nothing to do with material delays or weather.

Reading This Alongside the Broader Construction Outlook

It's worth connecting this survey to the wider industry picture. Even in a year where overall growth is cooling nationally, workforce shortages aren't cooling with it — the AGC data shows hiring difficulty holding steady or worsening year over year regardless of the macro cycle. That tells you this is a structural problem (demographics, training pipeline, immigration policy) rather than a cyclical one tied to how busy the industry happens to be in any given quarter. Don't expect it to solve itself when demand ticks back up in 2027 — if anything, a stronger bid environment will make the labor shortage bite harder, not less.

This is also a reason equipment that reduces the need for additional skilled labor is worth a serious look. A well-specced compact track loader with modern attachment compatibility can let one competent operator cover work that used to take a small crew. A larger excavator with better reach and bucket capacity moves the same material in fewer passes, with fewer total machine-hours and less total operator time needed. None of that replaces skilled people — but it stretches the ones you have further, which is exactly the leverage a tight labor market rewards.

A Closer Look at the Mechanic Shortage

The 79% figure for equipment technician and mechanic shortages deserves its own callout, because it's the one that hits fleet owners the hardest regardless of how tight or loose the broader construction market is. Every machine you own, finance, or are considering financing eventually needs a qualified set of hands to service it — hydraulic work, undercarriage repair, engine diagnostics, electrical troubleshooting on increasingly computerized equipment. When nearly 4 out of 5 firms can't reliably fill that role, the practical result is longer wait times at dealer service departments, more equipment sitting down waiting on parts and labor, and a growing premium on machines that simply need less of that scarce attention in the first place.

This is part of why factory telematics and remote diagnostics — the same VisionLink, JDLink, and comparable systems that help with fleet utilization — are becoming a bigger factor in equipment decisions than they were even two or three years ago. A machine that can flag a developing hydraulic issue before it becomes a breakdown, or that pushes a fault code straight to a dealer's service department before a mechanic even arrives onsite, effectively multiplies the productivity of a short-staffed maintenance team. In a market where AGC's data says you genuinely cannot count on hiring your way out of the mechanic shortage anytime soon, that kind of built-in diagnostic capability is a real financial consideration, not a gadget.

What We're Hearing From Contractors Directly

On our own calls, the workforce shortage shows up less as an abstract statistic and more as a very specific, practical decision: "I have the work, I don't have the guys to run a third crew, so I need one machine that does more instead of three machines that need three more operators." That's a legitimate, financeable strategy, and it's one where the equipment spec genuinely matters — horsepower, hydraulic flow, attachment versatility, and operator comfort all factor into whether a single skilled operator can realistically cover more ground.

It also changes how we think about financing terms. A contractor consolidating capability into fewer, better-equipped machines because of a genuine labor constraint has a clear, defensible business case for a lender — this isn't speculative fleet growth, it's a documented operational response to a documented industry-wide problem. That's exactly the kind of story that makes for a strong financing conversation.

Get the Equipment That Helps You Do More With the Crew You Have

Visit the BFC Equipment Loans home page to see how we help contractors finance equipment built for today's labor market. Ready to upgrade a machine that stretches your crew further? Apply for equipment financing. Looking to buy or sell equipment? Browse our inventory. And for more research like this, subscribe to the BFC blog.