The Skilled Trades Shortage Doesn’t End at the Jobsite
Rob Almond, CEO of NEST
A construction project can finish on time and on budget and still leave an owner with a labor problem that lasts for decades.
It shows up in the middle of summer when an HVAC unit fails, and the right technician cannot get there for two days. It shows up when specialized equipment requires a shrinking pool of qualified workers to service it. And it shows up when what should have been one repair turns into three service calls, more downtime, and a much larger bill.
That is why owners should stop thinking about the skilled trades shortage primarily as a contractor hiring problem. It is becoming an operating and financial risk embedded in the building's lifecycle.
The pressure is already visible.
In a 2025 workforce survey from the Associated General Contractors of America and NCCER, 92% of construction firms that were hiring reported difficulty finding qualified workers, while 45% said workforce shortages had delayed projects. More than half said available candidates lacked the skills or qualifications they needed.
But project delays are only the beginning.
The same shortage making it harder to put skilled workers on a jobsite today can make it harder and more expensive to maintain that facility tomorrow.
Treat Labor Like a Long-Lead Item
Owners became much more disciplined about supply-chain risk after experiencing long lead times for equipment and materials. Skilled labor deserves similar attention.
Associated Builders and Contractors estimates that the construction industry needs to attract 349,000 net new workers in 2026 to meet demand, followed by 456,000 in 2027. ABC also expects much of the 2026 need to come from workers leaving the industry, including retirement.
During preconstruction, consider questions such as:
- Which trades represent the greatest labor risk in this market?
- Does the contractor have enough staffing depth to support the full schedule?
- Do specialized systems depend on a small pool of qualified technicians?
- What is the contingency plan if a key subcontractor becomes unavailable?
If a project depends on equipment with a 30-week lead time, flag it early. Treat a critical trade with limited labor availability the same way: identify the constraint, understand the alternatives, and don’t wait until it affects the critical path.
Design For The Labor Market You Will Have
Owners routinely consider the lifecycle cost of equipment. They should also consider the lifecycle cost of the labor required to maintain it.
A decision that saves money during construction but makes equipment difficult to inspect, diagnose, or repair can transfer costs to the facilities budget for years.
Consider two pieces of equipment performing the same function. One can be accessed and diagnosed by one technician in an hour. The other requires two people, additional disassembly, and several hours before the repair even begins.
That difference is a recurring labor cost built into the facility.
This is why facilities teams need a meaningful voice before construction ends. Owners should consider whether equipment is easily accessible, components can be standardized across a portfolio, replacement parts are readily available, and asset information will transfer cleanly from construction into operations. In a constrained labor market, maintainability is not just a facilities issue. It is part of lifecycle cost control.
Measure The Outcome, Not Just The Service Call
Labor scarcity should also change how owners evaluate maintenance performance.
The lowest hourly rate does not necessarily produce the lowest total cost. A cheaper service call that leads to multiple visits, prolonged downtime, or an incomplete repair can quickly become more expensive than getting the right technician to the site the first time.
Instead of simply asking what a work order costs, owners should measure what it accomplished:
- Was the problem solved on the first visit?
- How long was the asset down?
- Did the technician need to return?
- Is the equipment generating repeated service requests?
- How many truck rolls were required to resolve the issue?
For organizations operating hundreds or thousands of locations, those distinctions add up. One unnecessary return visit may seem insignificant. Multiplied across a portfolio, those visits consume technician capacity and increase costs. In a tight labor market, a cheap truck roll that requires another truck roll is not cheap.
Use Technology To Make Expertise Go Further
Recruiting more people into the skilled trades remains essential. But the industry also has to get better at using the skilled people it already has.
Technology can help – not by replacing tradespeople, but by reducing time spent searching for information, making unnecessary trips, or diagnosing problems without context.
A technician who arrives with an asset’s service history, model information, and previous repairs starts from a much better position than someone beginning from scratch. Better data can help determine who to dispatch, which parts may be needed, and whether an asset should be repaired or replaced.
The next productivity breakthrough in the skilled trades may happen before the technician ever picks up a tool.
That thinking also drives NEST’s expanded relationship with my alma mater, Saint Joseph’s University. Through the launch of The Hawk’s NEST, we committed $200,000 to an initiative where students, faculty, and industry leaders can use real-world facilities data to explore how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics can improve facilities management and support the skilled trades.
The opportunity is not AI versus the trades. It is asking how technology can help highly skilled people accomplish more. When technician capacity is scarce, every avoidable trip and incomplete work order consumes expertise that could be used elsewhere.
What Owners Can Do Now
No owner can solve the skilled trades shortage alone. But owners can reduce their exposure to it.
A few steps deserve attention now:
- Bring facilities into the conversation earlier.
- Evaluate labor capacity alongside price and schedule.
- Preserve asset data through turnover.
- Measure successful outcomes.
- Invest in the pipeline.
Workforce development, however, is only half of the equation. We also have to make sure the people entering the trades can spend as much of their time as possible doing the skilled work only they can do.
Build For The Workforce Ahead
The best-built facility in the years ahead may not simply be the one that comes in on budget and on schedule.
It will also be one designed to operate efficiently in an environment where skilled labor is expensive, specialized, and not always immediately available.
That means labor strategy and facility strategy can no longer be separated.
Owners should plan around labor availability, design for maintainability, demand better asset data, build deeper relationships with qualified contractors, and use technology to eliminate work that does not require a skilled technician. The skilled trades shortage does not end at the jobsite. It follows the owner into maintenance, operations, and capital planning for years afterward.
Rob Almond is CEO of NEST, the pioneer of Integrated Facilities Management (IFM), where he leads a team that supports 60,000+ retail locations and multi-site businesses across North America. A 20+ year NEST veteran, Rob has helped shape the company’s growth through a technology-forward approach, the development of industry-leading software solutions, and a workplace culture that has driven consistent double-digit growth.
Rob is also the founder of the Skilled Trades Advisory Council (STAC), a nonprofit focused on addressing the skilled labor shortage across the U.S. and Canada by raising awareness, advancing workforce development, and expanding pathways into the trades.
NEST is the pioneer of the Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) industry in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1994, NEST delivers day-to-day tactical facilities management, financial consulting, analytics, project management, and construction for major multi-site brands across North America. NEST provides 360° support 24 hours a day through one comprehensive facilities management solution that drives cost savings while maintaining an exceptional customer experience. To learn more about NEST, visit enterNEST.com or follow NEST on LinkedIn.