According to government data, the number of open jobs for the overall economy decreased from 7.36 million in June to 7.18 million in July. The July reading was notably lower than the 7.50 million estimate from a year ago and reflects an overall cooling of the U.S employment market.

Because construction is one of the industries that has tended to utilize a significant fraction of undocumented worker capacity, according to industry observers, filling open positions is becoming more difficult as employers seek to replace undocumented workers with documented ones. With fewer workers—along with an increased competition for a limited pool of trained workers—the survey indicated job openings are causing longer project timelines and even cancellations. Current healthy backlog numbers could potentially be an indicator of a negative shift, it was observed.

The Workforce Survey was conducted in late July and early August, with nearly 1,400 firms participating in the survey from a broad cross-section of both union organized contractors and open shop enterprises of all sizes.

“As the survey results show, construction workforce shortages aren’t just a problem for the construction industry,” said Chief Economist Ken Simonson of the Associated General Contractors of America. “Construction projects of all types are being delayed because there aren’t enough qualified workers available for firms to hire.”

The association noted that 92% of construction firms that are hiring report having a hard time finding qualified workers. As a result, 88% of firms report having openings for craft construction workers, while four-fifths of firms have openings for salaried workers.

Getting to a root cause of worker shortage, the difficulty of finding qualified trades people is because federal officials have failed to properly invest in construction workforce training and education. Based on survey responses, investment shortfalls were noted by 57% of firms responding that available candidates are not qualified to work in the industry because they lack essential skills or do not have an appropriate license for the position.

The survey also demonstrated how difficult it is for construction firms to take advantage of the few visa programs available to the industry. Only 10% of firms use the H-2B visa program or other temporary work visa programs to secure either salaried or hourly craft employees.

The industry has also been impacted by stepped-up immigration enforcement. Some 28% of respondents report being affected directly or indirectly by immigration enforcement activities during the past 6 months. Specifically, 5% report a jobsite or offsite was visited by immigration agents. Ten percent said workers left or failed to appear because of actual or rumored immigration actions. And 20% report subcontractors lost workers.

However, the impacts of immigration enforcement varied considerably by state. Contractors in Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Nebraska and South Carolina were more likely to be impacted, ranging from 75% of firms in Georgia to 36% in South Carolina. Conversely, only 8% of firms in Idaho and 9% in Alaska reported being impacted by immigration enforcement activities during the past six months.

Worker shortages are respondents’ most-commonly listed reason for project delays. Forty-five percent of respondents reported experiencing project delays due to shortages of their own, or subcontractors’ workers. Overall, 78% of firms report experiencing at least one project that has been delayed during the past twelve months.

The construction industry is taking steps to address workforce shortages. Seven out of eight firms raised base pay for workers as much or more than they did a year earlier. And 42% initiated or increased spending on training and professional development in the past year.