Wages in construction are rising as the nation’s labor market recovers from the flood of cheap and subsidized migrant labor imported by pro-migration policies before 2024, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The recovery — caused by President Donald Trump’s 2024 deportation mandate — is especially rapid in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has used state police to deliver many illegal migrants to the federal deportation officers.
American construction workers in Florida who build the wooden frames for housing can now charge roughly $42 per hour, up from $20 per hour, Scott Brannock, president of Jacksonville-based Tidewater Homes and the Northeast Florida Builders Association, told the newspaper.
“We’re almost dead in the water because our [foreign migrant] workforce is gone,” he complained in the October 16 report.
“A September survey from the National Association of Home Builders found the cost of labor had increased a median of 4.2% from the previous year,” the newspaper reported.
The loss of migrant labor in Americans’ national labor is forcing CEOs to hire more Americans, the newspaper noted.
David Hacker, owner of subcontractor Construction Specialties of North Florida, “has seen a 70% reduction of crews available for certain jobs, forcing the leftover crews to double their rates in most cases [and] has also started a campaign to recruit new workers, offering significant cash bonuses for applications,” the newspaper wrote.
The deportations are good news for the millions of young citizens who have been pushed and pulled out of their national labor market, the Center for Immigration Studies reported in July:
If the same share of U.S.-born men (16 to 64) were in the labor force in 2026 as in 1960, there would be 9.2 million more U.S.-born men in the labor force. Even if the share returned only to the 2000 level, it would still add 4.5 million U.S.-born men to the labor force.
Even “prime-age”, U.S.-born men (25 to 54), the group most likely to work, have experienced a similar deterioration, from 4 percent not in the labor force in April 1960 to 8.5 percent in 2000 and 11.1 percent in April 2026.
Media sites in the construction sector also report rising wages and salaries as Trump gradually enforces Americans’ right to a national labor market.
“Construction pay is up again this year, and many tradespeople are starting to feel the shift on the jobsite,” TradeHounds.com reported in June:
Average hourly earnings for construction craft workers reached $38.97 in May 2026, up 5.0% year over year, compared to 3.6% for the broader private sector. Growth is strongest in nonresidential construction.
Nationwide, entry-level construction workers saw their wages rise by 16 percent during 2025, to $52,000, said a December 2025 report by The Birmingham Group:
The current labor shortage is driving unprecedented wage increases across commercial projects. Construction firms report difficulty filling critical positions, with some markets experiencing job opening-to-candidate ratios exceeding 3:1. This imbalance has created a seller’s market for skilled workers, enabling significant salary negotiations and competitive pay packages.
The wage gains also reflect the physical risk of a construction career, especially among Latino workers.
“Construction laborers, the crews who prep sites and move materials, face an injury rate more than twice the national average,” according to a new survey by Affordable Contractors Insurance. It added:
The total cases amount to 54.3K over the two years. Over two-thirds of these cases require time off, but in this trade, people rest less, usually 12 days or fewer.
The healing of the labor market is slower in Texas because the supply of Mexican labor has kept salaries near the bottom on the national ranking.
For example, average wages for Texas construction workers rose to $37 an hour in December 2025, according to data presented by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That was up modestly from $36 per hour in December 2024.
Yet a group of Texas construction companies lobbied Republicans and reporters for more migrant labor in February, according to a Politico report that credulously touted their demands:
Johnny Vasquez, executive officer of the Rio Grande Valley Builders Association, noted that Hidalgo County turned red for the president in 2024 — an example of gains the GOP will lose if the policies don’t shift, he argued. “For me and for our association, we need workers, whether they’re American or not,” he said. “We just need workers.”
The rising wage gains come amid rising competition in house sales, putting a tighter squeeze on CEOs who have enjoyed decades of cheap labor and rising sales.
“The latest HMI survey found that 38% of builders cut prices in September, up from 35% in August [and] the average price cut remained at 6% for the sixth consecutive month,” said a September report by a trade newspaper, HBSDealer. The price cut was driven by rising mortgage costs, the site noted.
Meanwhile, so-called “moderate” Democrats and business groups are calling for more immigration to force cuts in Americans’ wages.
