The construction industry across North Carolina and South Carolina is facing a challenge that goes far deeper than simply finding enough bodies to fill open positions. While labor shortages grab headlines, the real crisis is quieter and more consequential: the construction experience gap.
In recent years, the Carolinas have seen significant changes and growth in the construction industry, driven by increased demand, urbanization, and infrastructure investments.
This gap represents the growing disconnect between the demand for workers with substantial, hands-on field expertise and the shrinking pool of qualified workers who can deliver it. As the Carolinas continue their rapid expansion, understanding and addressing this gap has become essential for contractors, policymakers, and workforce development leaders throughout the region.
The construction experience gap is the widening disconnect between the number of open construction roles and the availability of workers with substantial, real-world jobsite experience in the Carolinas. This is not about filling positions on an org chart. It is about finding workers who have logged 10,000 or more hours in the field, who understand how to read a project’s rhythm, and who can make sound decisions under pressure.
Competency and judgment matter more than credentials or years on a resume. A worker might hold the right certifications and have five years of employment history, but if those years were spent on simple, repetitive tasks without exposure to complex problem-solving, the experience does not translate to the kind of expertise construction companies desperately need.
Since roughly 2018, entry-level hiring has increased across both states. Construction firms have brought new workers onto their payrolls at a steady pace. But mid-career and senior field leaders are not being replaced at the same rate. The pipeline is filling at the bottom while emptying at the top, highlighting a broader talent gap in the construction industry that extends beyond just experience to an overall shortage of skilled workers in the Carolinas.
Consider the difference between two hypothetical projects:
| Project A | Project B |
|---|---|
| 70% journeyman-level workers | 70% first- and second-year apprentices |
| Experienced foremen leading each crew | Junior supervisors learning on the fly |
| Proactive problem identification | Reactive problem response |
| Predictable schedule and quality | Higher rework rates and delays |
The experience gap spans every critical role in the construction workforce. Superintendents, project managers, foremen, and craft leaders in electrical, mechanical, concrete, civil, and finishes trades are all affected. The gap is not confined to one specialty—it touches every phase of project delivery.
North Carolina and South Carolina have experienced remarkable growth since 2010. North Carolina’s population increased by 10.7% from 2010 to 2020 and is projected to reach 11.2 million by 2030. South Carolina matched that pace with 10.7% growth over the same decade. This sustained in-migration has created enormous pressure on housing, infrastructure, and commercial development.
Metropolitan areas like Raleigh, Charlotte, Charleston, and Greenville-Spartanburg continue to attract new residents and businesses at rates that outpace most of the nation. Each new arrival adds to the demand for construction—new homes, expanded roads, upgraded utilities, and commercial spaces.
The economic drivers are substantial:
The diversity of current work is staggering. Coastal development stretches from Wilmington to Myrtle Beach. Highway and bridge upgrades along I-95 and I-77 are ongoing. Hospital expansions in Charlotte and Columbia are reshaping healthcare delivery. K-12 and higher education projects span both states, including modernization across the UNC system and new school construction in fast-growing districts.
All of these project types require a higher ratio of experienced personnel to keep safety, schedule, and quality on track. The demand for skilled construction labor continues to rise as the region experiences rapid growth and development. Industrial expansions in the Piedmont Crescent demand workers who understand complex mechanical systems. Coastal resiliency projects in the Outer Banks require judgment about weather and tides, as well as specialized construction methods. Healthcare requires crews capable of coordinating intricate MEP work in occupied facilities.
The labor market is stretched thin, and the construction industry faces growing pains that simple hiring cannot solve. There are not enough skilled workers to meet the growing demand, limiting the industry’s ability to take on new projects and slowing overall expansion.
Replacing a retiring superintendent with two junior staff members does not equal the same decision-making capacity on site. This is the fundamental challenge many organizations fail to grasp. Workforce management is not simply about counting employees—it is about ensuring the right expertise is present when critical decisions need to be made.
The kinds of tacit knowledge being lost are difficult to quantify but easy to recognize:
This institutional knowledge takes decades to develop and cannot be taught in a classroom. It comes from solving problems on hundreds of projects, learning from mistakes, and developing instincts that only experience can build. For professionals seeking to enhance their safety culture and expand their knowledge through industry insights, consider attending the ABC Carolinas Safety & Health Summit.
“The ‘experience gap’ remains my biggest concern. As seasoned veterans retire, we are losing institutional knowledge faster than we can replace it, despite our best recruiting efforts. We have to be laser-focused on not just hiring, but rapidly upskilling and mentoring to ensure that the wisdom of our industry leaders is successfully transferred to the next generation, ensuring safety and quality don’t slip.”
— Christi Powell, President and CEO, ABC Carolinas
Powell’s perspective reflects what contractors across the region are experiencing. Many construction employers are filling positions on org charts, but still feel exposed on complex scopes. The new hires are present, but the seasoned judgment that keeps projects on track is missing.
Consider two scenarios that illustrate the difference:
Coastal multi-family project in Wilmington: A project staffed with experienced superintendents and foremen recognizes early signs of moisture infiltration issues during concrete pours. They adjust sequencing and waterproofing approaches before problems escalate. A similar project with less experienced leadership misses the warning signs, resulting in remediation costs and schedule delays.
Industrial expansion near Spartanburg: Veteran project managers coordinate with utilities, inspectors, and multiple trades to maintain an aggressive schedule. They know which relationships to leverage and which lead times require early attention. A younger team on a comparable project learns these lessons the hard way, adding weeks to the timeline.
The difference is not effort or intelligence. It is experience.
Safety, quality, and productivity are interlinked, and all are threatened when institutional knowledge declines. The construction skills gap does not just affect outcomes—it creates risks that ripple through every aspect of project delivery.
Inexperienced crews may miss near-miss indicators on high-rise work in Charlotte or overlook trenching hazards on utility upgrades in rural South Carolina. OSHA-reportable incidents rose 8% on North Carolina construction sites in 2024, a trend that correlates with workforce inexperience across the state.
Skilled professionals develop safety instincts over years of exposure to hazardous conditions. They recognize when something looks wrong before an incident occurs. This cannot be replicated through training alone—it requires mentorship and time in the field, as well as ongoing workforce development initiatives that fuel economic growth in the Carolinas.
Rework rates can increase by 15-20% on projects staffed with inexperienced crews, according to industry analyses. Complex MEP-heavy projects, such as healthcare and higher education buildings in Raleigh-Durham and Charleston, are particularly vulnerable. For insights into local construction legislation in North Carolina and efforts to address building challenges, learn more about Rep. Jeff Zenger’s work.
When workers lack expertise in reading drawings, understanding specifications, or coordinating with adjacent trades, mistakes happen. Those mistakes require correction, and correction costs money and time.
Schedule slippage becomes common on highway widening or industrial expansions when foremen lack experience in sequencing trades and coordinating inspections. Efficiency suffers when supervisors are learning on the job rather than applying proven methods.
Project delays on affected projects in the Carolinas have contributed to cost overruns averaging 12%. These overruns strain budgets, damage client relationships, and can make future work harder to win.
North Carolina and South Carolina have increasingly complex building, energy, and environmental codes. South Carolina updated coastal building codes following Hurricane Ian. North Carolina continues to evolve seismic standards and energy requirements.
Less experienced teams are more likely to generate violations, failed inspections, or documentation gaps. Each compliance failure creates project requirements for correction that consume time and resources.
A hypothetical Carolinas hospital project illustrates the stakes: rework on MEP installations due to coordination errors could add 5-10% to labor costs on a $50 million project. That represents $2.5 to $5 million in avoidable expense—money that flows directly from inexperience.
While national trends exist, North Carolina and South Carolina have specific demographic and educational drivers intensifying the gap. Understanding these root causes is essential for developing effective solutions. The industry must also actively promote the realities of modern construction careers to attract new talent and address misconceptions.
The baby boomer retirement wave is accelerating. Nationwide, construction tradespeople aged 55 and older comprise 22% of the workforce as of 2023. Projections suggest 41% will retire by 2031. In the Carolinas, the state labor department estimates the loss of 25,000 experienced tradespeople by 2028.
Key trades facing acute losses include:
Careers in the trades include:
Counties in eastern North Carolina and rural South Carolina have fewer young adults entering construction careers. Approximately 40% of North Carolina counties face acute skilled labor deficits. These areas increasingly rely on traveling crews for road, utility, and school projects—a model that is expensive and unsustainable.
Outmigration from rural areas to metropolitan centers compounds the problem. Young people leave for opportunities in cities, and rural construction demand grows without a local workforce to meet it.
From the late 1990s through the 2010s, many high schools in both states emphasized four-year degrees over career and technical education (CTE). Shop, carpentry, and construction programs shrank as educational institutions steered students toward college pathways.
Only 5.7% of North Carolina high school graduates pursued apprenticeships in 2022, compared to national averages. South Carolina’s CTE programs reached only 28% enrollment in construction trades in 2023. An entire generation received less exposure to the skilled trades as viable career paths.
Parents and young people may still perceive construction as low-tech, physically demanding, and unstable, with little career progression. This perception persists despite strong wages, clear career paths, and increasing technology integration.
Construction careers in the Carolinas offer competitive compensation, job security, and advancement opportunities. But actively promoting this reality requires intentional effort from the industry.
While the region attracts new residents, many newcomers bring skills in technology, healthcare, finance, and other industries. They do not bring the heavy trade skills needed on Carolinas job sites. Population growth creates construction demand without proportionally growing the available talent.
Past underinvestment in vocational education at the state and district level limited capacity for construction-focused CTE programs in NC and SC high schools. Educational institutions lacked equipment, instructors, and industry connections to prepare students for construction work.
Recent improvements have emerged. Increased attention to workforce development through state initiatives and federal infrastructure funding has created new opportunities. But the time lag to build experience means that funding today will not produce seasoned workers for years.
Predictable, long-term funding is essential to sustain multi-year apprenticeship programs and training pipelines in the Carolinas. Short-term grants create short-term programs that fail to address a long-term success challenge.
Closing the experience gap requires intentional action from contractors, association leaders, community colleges, and policymakers in both states. As part of their strategy to close the experience gap, many construction companies are re-evaluating their hiring practices and using data-driven approaches to improve recruitment and workforce planning. This section provides a practical roadmap organized around core solution themes: apprenticeships, employer-led training, mentorship, and regional partnerships.
The most effective strategies explicitly target experience transfer, not just initial recruitment of new workers. Getting more people into entry-level roles is necessary but not sufficient. The goal is to develop those workers into skilled professionals who can lead projects safely and efficiently.
Registered apprenticeship programs in trades like electrical, plumbing, HVAC, carpentry, and heavy equipment can be expanded across the Carolinas. ABC Carolinas reported 1,200 active apprentices in 2025, achieving 85% completion rates and filling 70% of foreman roles internally.
The value of apprenticeships lies in blending on-the-job training with classroom instruction at regional community colleges and technical institutes. Workers learn theory and then immediately apply it on real projects under supervision.
Construction employers can structure employer-sponsored training that mirrors real project conditions:
Wage progression tied to skill benchmarks helps retain apprentices and incentivizes rapid learning. When workers see their pay increase as they master new skills, they stay engaged and committed.
Aligning apprenticeship curricula with current code requirements and BIM workflows in NC and SC makes training programs more directly applicable to the field. Apprentices should learn the specific skills they will use on Carolinas projects, not generic national content.
Mentorship pipelines are formal systems that pair senior superintendents, foremen, and project managers with entry-level workers and apprentices. ABC Carolinas’ MentorMatch program has demonstrated 30% faster competency gains through structured pairing.
Effective mentorship structures include:
Mentorship should be integrated into day-to-day work on active projects, not isolated in occasional training sessions. The most valuable learning happens when an experienced worker explains why they are making a particular decision in the moment.
Carolinas contractors should capture best practices in simple formats as older workers approach retirement:
Firms that track mentorship outcomes—reduced rework, fewer safety incidents, faster promotion timelines—can prove the business case and refine their approaches. The Carolinas Workforce Acceleration Program has upskilled 3,500 workers since 2022 using these principles.
Carolinas contractors can co-design curricula with local community colleges, so graduates arrive on the job site ready to work. Central Piedmont Community College’s construction academy trains 400 students yearly in BIM and prefabrication, producing workers who can contribute immediately.
Workforce academies and pre-apprenticeship programs prepare high school students for direct entry into construction roles after graduation. These programs bridge the gap between education and employment, creating talent pools that contractors can draw from.
Collaboration with K-12 CTE programs should include:
ABC Eastern Carolinas hosts craft competitions engaging 500+ high schoolers annually, boosting recruitment by 22%. These events change perceptions and create early connections with the industry.
Aligning academic calendars with construction demand can give students concentrated experience. Summer work on campus projects, for example, allows students to gain meaningful hours during their education.
Example partnership model: A group of Upstate South Carolina contractors partners with a technical college to deliver a fast-track industrial maintenance program. The contractors provide equipment, site access, and mentors. The college provides instruction and credentials. Graduates enter the workforce with skills aligned with regional demand.
Career mapping means creating clear, written pathways from helper to journeyman to foreman, superintendent, and project management roles. When workers can see their future in the industry, they stay.
Stackable credentials are short, recognized training blocks that build toward higher-level roles:
This structure improves retention. Longitudinal studies show 75% of talent with clear career paths remain in the region. Workers who lack expertise and see no path forward leave for other opportunities.
Contractors should tie pay scales, bonuses, and leadership opportunities to credential acquisition and demonstrated field competence. Make advancement transparent and achievable.
Career maps should reflect regional specialties:
Modern experience in the Carolinas now includes both craft skills and comfort with new technologies. The definition of an experienced worker is expanding to include digital competencies alongside traditional trade knowledge.
BIM coordination is increasingly standard on Carolinas projects, mandated on 60% of North Carolina public projects over $5 million. Prefabrication reduces on-site labor by 25% on industrial projects in South Carolina. Advanced safety monitoring via wearables has cut incidents by 18% where implemented. AI-driven scheduling tools like Procore optimize timelines by 15%.
These technologies demand hybrid skills—workers who can swing a hammer and interpret a 3D model, who understand both the physical and digital aspects of construction.
Technology can accelerate learning when used intentionally:
But technology alone cannot replace field experience. These tools augment seasoned leaders’ judgment while providing younger workers with a smoother on-ramp. A VR simulation cannot teach a worker to read a subcontractor crew’s mood or recognize when soil conditions have shifted. Those skills still require human mentorship.
Highlighting drones, laser scanners, tablets, and modeling software can make construction more appealing to students in North and South Carolina. Career changers from technology fields may find the industry more attractive when they understand the digital sophistication of modern construction.
The key is framing technology as a tool that enhances, not replaces, craftsmanship and safety. A drone survey supports better site planning, but it does not replace the surveyor’s judgment. BIM coordination improves accuracy, but skilled workers still install the systems.
Effective outreach messaging showcases mixed career paths that combine field leadership with technology roles. A superintendent who also leads BIM coordination efforts represents a compelling career trajectory.
Social media, virtual reality demos, and interactive career events at Carolinas schools and job fairs can reach young people where they are. Construction firms that modernize their image compete more effectively with the technology and logistics sectors for talent.
The overall quality of the workforce improves when new entrants arrive with both technological aptitude and respect for craft excellence.
The following scenarios illustrate how Carolinas contractors have approached the experience gap through intentional investment in mentorship, training, and workforce development. These represent realistic, anonymized examples based on regional patterns.
A mid-sized general contractor in Charlotte implemented a formal mentoring and apprenticeship program beginning in 2020. They paired 50 apprentices with experienced superintendents and established monthly learning objectives for each pair.
Results over five years:
The investment required a dedicated coordinator’s time and some schedule flexibility to allow mentors to teach. But the returns in reduced turnover, improved safety, and faster project delivery far exceeded the costs.
An industrial contractor in the Greenville-Spartanburg area partnered with a community college to build an industrial maintenance pipeline. They invested in safety training and upskilling for 200 existing workers while recruiting career changers from related manufacturing backgrounds, highlighting the value of exploring careers in construction.
Results over three years:
The partnership model makes sense for smaller contractors who cannot build their own training infrastructure. Sharing resources through educational institutions extends reach.
A coastal builder operating across both Carolinas faced a high proportion of younger workers and struggled to maintain quality on complex waterfront projects. They implemented prefabrication to reduce on-site complexity, simulation-based training before workers reached jobsites, and structured mentorship pairing veterans with crews.
Results over four years:
Technology and mentorship together created a valuable opportunity to accelerate development while maintaining the craft excellence coastal work demands.
The construction experience gap across North Carolina and South Carolina is a pressing issue with direct implications for safety, quality, and economic growth. This year’s report of rising incidents and persistent project delays underscores the urgent need for action.
The key levers are clear:
Preserving institutional knowledge is just as important as attracting new entrants. The next decade of retirements will remove a generation of expertise. Only deliberate action can capture that knowledge and pass it forward.
Coordinated action is essential. No single contractor, no single community college, no single policy initiative can solve the problem alone. Industry associations, workforce boards, and state policymakers must align their efforts with actual regional project pipelines.
The Carolinas are well-positioned to lead the nation in building a modern, experienced construction workforce. The region has the economic momentum, the institutional capacity, and the industry commitment to succeed. What remains is sustained investment and collaboration.
The press release announcing new training programs is only the beginning. The real work happens on jobsites, in classrooms, and in the mentoring conversations that transfer wisdom from one generation to the next.
For contractors across North and South Carolina, the path forward is clear: invest in your people, partner with your community, and build the workforce that will deliver the region’s ambitious future.
The labor shortage is about not having enough people overall—open positions that go unfilled, and crews that are understaffed. The experience gap specifically concerns a lack of workers with deep, hands-on jobsite expertise in critical roles such as superintendent, foreman, and seasoned project manager. The Carolinas may fill entry-level positions but still struggle to find experienced leadership capable of managing complex projects safely and efficiently. Solving the experience gap requires long-term training and mentorship, not just recruiting more new workers to fill positions.
Smaller construction companies can join regional apprenticeship programs through organizations like ABC Carolinas rather than building programs from scratch. Collaborating with local community colleges provides access to training infrastructure without capital investment. Trade associations often offer shared training resources and group purchasing for safety and skills modules. Start small with structured mentoring—pair one veteran with one or two newer workers and document basic standard operating procedures. Consistency and intentionality matter more than scale.
In most trades, it can take 3-5 years of consistent, full-time field experience combined with structured training to reach a solid journeyman or mid-level role. Strong apprenticeships and mentorship can shorten this timeline slightly by providing more focused, high-quality learning opportunities. The goal is not just hours logged but exposure to a variety of projects, codes, and problem-solving situations across the Carolinas. Workers who see only one project type for five years develop narrower expertise than those with diverse exposure.
Track metrics such as employee retention rates, rework hours as a percentage of total labor, incident rates, schedule reliability, and internal promotion rates from apprentice to foreman or superintendent. Compare these metrics over a multi-year period before and after implementing mentorship, apprenticeship, or new training initiatives. Solicit field feedback from both mentors and mentees through regular surveys or check-ins. Refine programs based on real-world results rather than assumptions about what should work.
Policymakers can support sustained funding for CTE programs, community college construction pathways, and registered apprenticeships. Predictable, multi-year funding is more valuable than larger one-time grants because workforce development requires long-term commitment. Coordination with industry groups and workforce boards helps align training investments with actual regional project pipelines. Supportive policies around transportation, childcare, and housing can also make it easier for workers to enter and remain in construction careers across North and South Carolina.
