ABC Says Apprenticeship Programs Are Not Meeting Workforce Needs
The Associated Builders and Contractors latest review of government data found that federal and state government-registered apprenticeship programs (GRAPs) are still failing to meet the construction industry’s workforce development needs.
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ABC estimates that, in fiscal year 2024, the construction industry’s federal and state GRAPs had about 290,000 apprentice participants and yielded less than 40,000 completers.
“Unfortunately, America’s government-registered apprenticeship system isn’t keeping up with construction industry demand for skilled craft professionals, despite encouraging progress by many stakeholders to create new programs, attract new apprentices and graduate journeymen and women at the end of a rigorous four-to-five-year apprenticeship program,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs. “Despite the growth of nonunion GRAPs, this data is further evidence that an all-of-the-above approach to workforce development––in contrast to the Biden administration’s policy that only advanced only government-registered apprenticeship programs––is the best way to address the construction industry’s chronic skilled labor shortage.”
On Jan. 24, ABC projected the construction industry workforce shortage to be 439,000 in 2025.
The DOL’s data presents five-year trend lines indicating there has been stronger proportional growth in the number of nonunion GRAPs, apprentice participants and apprentice completers compared to union-affiliated GRAPs since 2019.
- In FY 2024, 84% of the construction industry’s GRAPs were nonunion providers. The number of nonunion GRAPs has grown by 25% since 2019, compared to a 7% decrease in union-affiliated GRAPs since FY 2019.
- Participants in nonunion GRAPs increased by 43% from FY 2019 to FY 2024, compared to 11% for union programs.
- Completers of nonunion GRAPs increased by 31% from FY 2019 to FY 2024, compared to 11% for union programs.
- However, in FY 2024, 31% of all construction industry GRAP participants were in nonunion programs.
“With construction unions representing a record-low 10.3% of the workforce, the fact that 69% of all apprenticeship programs participants are in union programs illustrates why the union lobby pushes for registered apprenticeship requirements on taxpayer-funded construction projects and advocates for federal grant money for GRAPs as a whole,” Brubeck said. “Workforce development solutions outside of the GRAP paradigm are a threat to union market share.”
He noted that ABC champions government-registered apprenticeships as part of the solution to workforce development needs.
“ABC’s 67 chapters are educating craft, safety and management professionals using innovative and flexible learning models like just-in-time task training, competency-based progression and work-based learning, in addition to more than 450 federal and state GRAPs in more than 20 different occupations across America, in order to develop a safe, skilled and productive workforce,” he said. “ABC members invested an estimated $1.6 billion in construction industry workforce development to upskill 1.3 million course attendees in 2023, including hundreds of GRAPs administered independently by ABC member companies.”
According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the construction industry had 8.31 million employees as of February 2025 and experienced an unemployment rate between 3.2% and 4.2% during peak construction months in 2024.
According to DOL apprenticeship data, apprentices enrolled in the construction industry GRAPs comprise 35.7% of the 679,105 apprentices enrolled in GRAPs across all industries in FY 2024.
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