Industry Trends
2025 Construction Industry Trend Predictions
Labor supply, project financing, and where the hiring pressure is heaviest this year, based on what we are seeing across active searches.
The labor gap in field leadership is not closing this year. Retirements are outpacing the number of superintendents and project managers moving up from the field, and that pressure shows up first in heavy civil, where the training cycle is longest.
“Financing conditions are pushing more developers toward negotiated work over hard-bid, which changes what clients are asking us to source for — estimators who can build a relationship with a GC matter more than estimators who can only turn a fast number.”
Multifamily hiring has cooled from its 2022 peak but has not stopped; it has shifted toward renovation and value-add work rather than ground-up construction, which calls for a different kind of project manager than new development did.
Expect continued wage growth for superintendents with DOT or institutional-project experience specifically — general commercial experience is not commanding the same premium this cycle.