Two numbers frame construction hiring for 2027. The industry needs to attract 349,000 additional workers to meet demand, according to Associated Builders and Contractors in its January 15, 2026 workforce forecast. And the single strongest market in construction is data center work, which scored a net demand reading of 57 in the AGC of America 2026 Construction Hiring and Business Outlook, higher than any other segment.
Read together, they describe a 2027 where the work is growing fastest exactly where the talent is thinnest. The contractors who staff for it early will build it. The ones who wait will watch start dates slip.
Last updated: September 2026
The 2027 construction demand map, by market
The clearest read on where 2027 work is heading is the AGC of America and Sage 2026 outlook, released January 8, 2026, which asked 951 contractors across 49 states between November 4 and December 15, 2025 which markets they expect to grow or shrink. The table below is their full ranking.
The score is the share of contractors expecting a market to grow minus the share expecting it to shrink. A positive number means growth expectations win. The higher the number, the wider the margin.
| Construction market | 2026 AGC demand score | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Data centers | +57 | Strongest in the industry |
| Power | +34 | Growing fast |
| Healthcare, clinics and labs | +24 | Growing |
| Hospitals | +20 | Growing |
| Water and sewer | +16 | Growing |
| Manufacturing | +15 | Growing |
| Transportation structures | +11 | Growing |
| Bridge and highway | +10 | Growing |
| Federal | +5 | Slight growth |
| Multifamily residential | +4 | Flat to slight growth |
| Public buildings | +1 | Flat |
| K-12 schools | -1 | Flat to slight decline |
| Higher education | -5 | Declining |
| Lodging | -7 | Declining |
| Private office | -14 | Declining |
| Retail | -18 | Weakest in the industry |
Source: AGC of America and Sage, 2026 Construction Hiring and Business Outlook, January 8, 2026.
The pattern is hard to miss. Everything tied to electricity, water, chips, and care is growing. Everything tied to offices, malls, and campuses is shrinking. The same pressure that created a data center hiring crisis in a handful of states is spreading to every market with a power or healthcare backlog.
The workforce math behind 2027
Demand is only half the equation. The other half is that the people to build it are not there.
Associated Builders and Contractors put the 2026 gap at 349,000 workers the industry has to attract on top of normal hiring just to keep pace. AGC found that 82 percent of contractors already struggle to fill hourly craft roles and 80 percent struggle with salaried positions, while 63 percent still plan to add headcount. In the AGC and NCCER 2025 craft workforce survey, 92 percent of firms reported trouble hiring at all.
Two forces are making it worse. Seventy percent of contractors told AGC that tariffs are affecting their business, and 33 percent reported effects from immigration enforcement, which pulls directly at the craft labor pool that feeds the leadership pipeline. Fewer field workers today means fewer superintendents in five years.
Public wage data confirms the squeeze at the top. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its Occupational Outlook Handbook, tracks construction managers at a median of $114,990 as of May 2025, projects the category to grow 9 percent from 2025 to 2035, and expects about 49,700 openings a year. That is faster than average growth for a role that already takes months to fill.
The construction leadership roles hardest to fill in 2027
The markets growing fastest are also the most systems-heavy and schedule-critical work in the industry. A data center is not a warehouse with servers. It is a power and cooling project wrapped in a shell, and it lives or dies on coordination. That is why the roles in shortest supply for 2027 are the ones who run that complexity.
The clearest squeeze is on MEP leaders. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing is the long-lead, high-risk scope on every data center, hospital, and power job, and there are not enough project managers and superintendents who have actually run it. Right behind them are VDC and BIM managers, because the only way to keep those trades from clashing in the field is to catch it in the model first.
Field leadership is just as tight. A mission-critical superintendent who has closed out a live data center or an occupied hospital is one of the hardest people in construction to hire, because the contractors who have them are not letting them go. The same holds for the office side of preconstruction: bid risk runs high on these jobs, and demand for preconstruction leaders who can price them without leaving margin on the table keeps climbing.
What senior construction leaders earn heading into 2027
Public data covers only the base of the market. The ranges below reflect base compensation TBG is seeing in active 2026 searches for the leadership roles that run the growing work. They are search activity, not a government dataset.
| Role | Typical base, low | Typical base, high |
|---|---|---|
| Project Manager | $108,000 | $183,000 |
| Senior Project Manager | $127,000 | $219,000 |
| Preconstruction Manager | $116,000 | $183,000 |
| Director of Preconstruction | $158,000 | $227,000 |
| Chief Estimator | $161,000 | $269,000 |
| Project Executive / Division Director | $151,000 | $274,000 |
| Project Director | $187,000 | $325,000 |
Source: TBG active search activity, 2026. Base salary only; excludes bonus, vehicle, per diem, and long-term incentives.
Two things move a candidate to the top of these ranges. The first is the sector: data center and power work pays a premium because the same person is fielding three other calls the same week. The second is total package. A strong chief estimator weighing two offers is comparing bonus, vehicle, and long-term incentive, not base alone. Contractors can test an offer against current construction salary data by role before it goes out.
What contractors should do before 2027
Start earlier than feels necessary. A senior leadership search on a specialized job runs weeks, not days, because the right person is employed and has to be recruited, not sourced from an application. Waiting until a project is funded to begin looking is how a start date slips.
Make the offer competitive on the whole package. With 63 percent of contractors chasing the same additions to headcount, bonus, vehicle, per diem, and long-term incentive are what move a passive candidate who already has a good job.
Then move fast on the short list. In this market the candidate has options, and a two-week silence after the final interview loses the hire.
TBG has recruited construction leadership and nothing else since 1967. If you have a 2027 seat to fill on a data center, power, or healthcare job, you can open a confidential search through our construction recruiting team or call 248.647.7766, and the first conversation is about scope and market rate, not resumes. Leaders weighing their own next move can look at current construction leadership jobs instead.
2027 construction hiring, answered
Which construction jobs are in highest demand for 2027?
Leadership on data center, power, healthcare, and water and sewer projects. In the 2026 AGC outlook, data centers scored a net demand reading of 57 and power scored 34, the two strongest markets, and those are the jobs pulling hardest on MEP leaders, superintendents, preconstruction leaders, and VDC managers.
How big is the construction labor shortage going into 2027?
Associated Builders and Contractors estimated the industry needs to attract 349,000 additional workers in 2026 to keep pace with demand, on top of normal hiring. AGC found 82 percent of contractors struggle to fill craft roles and 80 percent struggle with salaried positions, so the shortage runs from the field all the way up to leadership.
What do senior construction leaders make heading into 2027?
In current TBG searches, senior project managers run $127,000 to $219,000, chief estimators $161,000 to $269,000, and project executives and directors from $151,000 up to $325,000 in base salary. Data center and power work pushes candidates to the top of those ranges.
How long does it take to hire a construction executive right now?
A senior leadership search typically runs several weeks, because the strongest candidates are already employed and have to be recruited directly rather than sourced from applicants. Contractors who wait until a project is funded to begin often end up delaying the start.
Why are data center and power projects driving construction hiring?
Both are surging at once while retail and office construction contract. Data centers led every market in the January 2026 AGC survey, and the work is systems-heavy, so it demands the exact leadership skill set that is already in shortest supply.
The contractors who win the 2027 work will be the ones who hired the leaders to run it in 2026.
