The Employer Role in Building the Future Built Environment Workforce

Nearly 10 million people work across the built environment fields of architecture, design, engineering, and construction in the United States, yet employers face persistent labor shortages, high turnover, and aging management. The construction industry alone needs to attract over 400,000 new workers each year to meet demand and replace retiring workers. 

Over the past year, we’ve interviewed more than 100 stakeholders across these industries, including workers, corporate executives, and leaders in education and training organizations. One focus was to determine what role employers could play in improving and amplifying work opportunities in these fields. Recruitment campaigns can help employers reach more workers, but they cannot solve the challenge on their own. Employers should also invest in improving job quality, making advancement more transparent, widening access to opportunity, and building workplaces where people feel respected. These are central to developing a stronger talent strategy and heavily influence whether workers enter, remain, and advance in these careers. 

Make job quality and advancement visible from the start 

Early-career workers pay close attention to what a job offers and whether it provides a sustainable future. In a national survey of college students preparing for built environment careers, pay and benefits were the strongest reported factors influencing whether respondents would stay in the field, followed by career advancement, job stability, and flexibility. Eighty percent cited pay and benefits, 68% cited advancement, 59% cited stability, and 53% cited flexibility. 

Chart 1. When students planning to enter built environment careers were asked what factors would determine staying in their field, pay and benefits ranked the highest (n=121). 

These findings offer employers a practical starting point: make the quality and trajectory of a job clear before someone is hired. 

That means publishing transparent pay ranges, explaining skill expectations, and showing how workers can move from frontline, trade, or support roles into supervisory and professional positions. Employers should also consider offering tuition assistance, certification support, and paid time for learning.  

Career pathways become more credible when employees can see people like themselves moving through them. Internal mobility, promotion from within, and visible examples of advancement can help employers strengthen retention while signaling that long-term opportunity is part of the job. 

Widen entry points and remove unnecessary degree barriers. 

The built environment workforce includes occupations with widely varied skill requirements and points of entry, from community-based training to union apprenticeships to college degree programs. In addition, the sector remains divided by education and earnings. Many higher-paying architecture, engineering, and design roles require bachelor’s degrees, while workers in more accessible trade roles often face weaker starting pay and unclear pathways to long-term advancement. 

Employers can partner with local school districts and community organizations to help build awareness of career opportunities. Employers can also help close that occupational divide by examining how they define readiness. Which credentials are genuinely necessary for a role? Which are simply familiar signals that may screen out capable candidates? Separating required qualifications from preferred ones can broaden the pool without lowering standards. 

Employers can also build more entry points through paid pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, and partnerships with community colleges and workforce organizations. Hiring for demonstrated skills and potential alongside formal education can open opportunities for workers who have strong capabilities but limited access to traditional credentials. 

The goal is not to eliminate degrees where they are needed. It is to create clearer routes into professional and supervisory roles for workers who began elsewhere, and to make advancement possible for people who build expertise through experience. 

Treat belonging, mentorship, and safety as core operating practices 

Workers’ decisions to stay are shaped by more than compensation, even if that remains a top priority. Culture, representation, day-to-day treatment, scheduling, mentorship, and workplace safety all influence whether people believe they can build a future in the field. These conditions are especially important for women and workers of color, who remain underrepresented across most built environment occupations and continue to report barriers related to racism, harassment, and belonging. 

To become destination employers, corporations should consider investment in trained mentors, bystander intervention, respectful-workplace initiatives, affinity groups, flexible scheduling, and manager coaching. These practices work best when they are sustained and connected to accountability for managers and executive leaders.

Employers should treat harassment and discrimination as safety and retention issues. Supervisors and experienced workers need training to mentor effectively, support new hires, and reinforce respectful workplace norms. Employees need clear reporting channels and confidence that concerns will be addressed. Leaders should also monitor retention, promotion, and access to training by worker group and job level to identify where pathways are breaking down.