
The number of women employed in the construction industry increased significantly to 1.1 million in 2018, according to the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Eye on Housing blog. Amid the tight labor market and the skilled labor shortage, adding new workers is of paramount importance for the industry. While female representation in the construction industry has been low for decades, women in the construction labor force could represent an opportunity for the future to combat the labor shortage.
During the Great Recession, the number of females in construction declined sharply by almost 30% to 807,000 by 2010. From 2010 to 2017, the total slowly remained to around 970,000, but remained below the peak of pre-recession levels. However, in 2018, 1.1 million women worked in the construction industry, up by 13% from 2017, roughly matching the number of women in the industry before the Great Recession.
Overall, the share of women in construction remained relatively stable within the 8.9% -9.7% range since 2002. It increased to 9.9% in 2018. According to the Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey, women in the construction industry are mostly involved in such occupations as office and administrative support, management, business and financial operations. Sales and office occupations employed the largest number of women within the construction industry. In construction, women accounted for 73.5% of workers in sales and office occupations, including 464,000 women in office and administrative support, and 26,000 in sales and related occupations in 2018. More than 350,000 women were engaged in management, professional, and related occupations.
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