Eliminating the Racial Disparity in the Construction Industry
Reading Time: 5 Minutes
The construction industry generates $2 trillion annually in the United States. It makes up 4.4% of the U.S. GDP, and employs 8 million workers. (Construction Coverage, 2024). According to statista.com, the combined federal, state, and local governments spent approximately $451 billion on construction projects (Statista, 2024). Black-owned businesses were awarded $9.99 billion in federal contracts in the fiscal year 2023, which is less than 1.3% of the total federal contracts of $774 billion. (Govspend, 2024).
“While Black or African American workers represent 6 percent of onsite construction workers nationally, they represent 12 percent of workers in occupations similar to construction nationally.” (Cody, et al., 2024). The racial disparity is glaring in construction management." According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, 98.8% of construction managers in the U.S. were White.” (Whitmore, 2024). In the year 2023, only 4.8% of the construction managers were Black, even though Blacks constitute 13.6% of the U.S. population. (Whitmore, 2024).
Initiatives in the following areas can mitigate the problem of racial disparity in the construction industry with regards to construction contracts being awarded to Black-owned companies and construction jobs being filled by Black workers: education, legislation, and apprenticeship programs.
Because tradesmen and laborers require some level of training to develop skills and construction managers are usually required to have higher education, such as certifications or a four year degree, education is required (Whitmore, 2024). As a result of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the demand for construction industry workers and contractors has increased nationally, and apprenticeship programs can fulfill the demand for qualified construction workers (Cody, et al., 2024). The statistical data proves the racial disparities in construction contract awards and construction employment; thereby it is imperative that policy makers should allocate the necessary resources to combat these inequities (Whitmore, 2024).
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John Muhammad, President/Owner of Nation’s Builders, Host of the Business Building Blocks Podcast, Graduate Student of the University of Texas at El Paso majoring in Construction Management M.S., B.S Degree from Texas Southern University, former Site Health and Safety Specialist for the renovation of the Administration Building of the Johnson Space Center at NASA and former Superintendent for semi-custom home builder, Emerald Homes.
References
Cody, S., Munkacsy, K., Perez-Zetune, V., Hock, H., Wakar, B., Welch, R., & amp; Michaels, M. (2024). Building an Equitable Construction Workforce: Understanding and Increasing the Proportion of. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OASP/evaluation/pdf/OFCCP-CombinedReport.pdf
Construction Coverage (2024). https://constructioncoverage.com
GovSpend (2024). https://govspend.com
Statistica (2024). https://www.statista.com
Whitmore, S. R. (2024). Can Construction Management Education Programs at HBCUs
Increase the Number of African-American Construction Managers in the United States?. In 2024
ASEE Annual Conference & amp; Exposition. https://peer.asee.org/can-construction-management-education-programs-at-hbcus-increase-the-number-of-african-american-construction-managers-in-the-united-states
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