Bedrock of the Economy: The New York Building Industry

Growing Diversity

Two of the greatest and least understood legacies of the building industry are its diversity and its uniquely positive impact onNewYork’s social fabric. The industry overwhelmingly employs New York City residents, thus providing living incomes and stability to families throughout thefive boroughs. In addition, it is one of the few remaining industries that still provides decent, middle-income jobs andadvancement opportunities for all NewYorkers, regardless of their race, educational or ethnic background. In this respect, the building industry remains NewYork City’s quintessential melting pot.

Place of Residence

• Three in every four building industry workers both live and work in New York City, including 72 percent of construction workers.
• Queens and Brooklyn house most of the City’s construction workers, while Manhattan accounts for the largest number of real estate workers.
• Building service workers are heavily concentrated in Staten Island, followed by Queens.

Workforce

• The building industry workforce is 88 percent male (12 percent of all working NewYork City males), 12 percent female (2 percent of female workers in New York City).
• Approximately 83 percent of women in the industry are employed in white-collar jobs.
• Approximately 62 percent of the male workforce occupies blue-collar jobs.
• Minority workers hold the majority of building industry jobs.
• Minority workers hold two in every three bluecollar jobs, while white males account for 34 percent of all blue-collar jobs.
• The building industry provides7 percent of all jobs for minority workers and 8 percent for white workers.
• the building industry provides 8 percent of all jobs for Hispanic workers, and 6 percent for both African- American and Asian workers.

Foreign Born

• 47 percent of all New York City building industry workers were born abroad.
• Immigrants make up 64 percent of the building service sector and 48 percent of the construction sector.
• 69 percent of industry workers who arrived in the United States in the 1970s are now citizens, as are 44 percent who arrived in the 1980s, while only 14 percent of those who arrived in the 1990s have attained citizenship.

Age

• Most employees of the NewYork City building industry range in age from 30 to 50 years.
• The peak age group 35 to 39 has the largest proportion of workers.
• The average age of today’s construction worker is 40.Ten years ago, the average age for a unionized construction worker was 51.
• More than half of all architects and engineers are under 40 years of age.

Education

• Roughly one half of all building industry workers have attended college, with nearly one quarter having graduated or matriculated further.
• College attendance rates are highest for architects and engineers, with 92 percent of all design workers having some college or completing a degree program, followed by real estate workers with 55 percent.
• 38 percent of construction workers have attended college, 13 percent of whom graduated, while 26 percent of building service workers attended college, with only 7 percent graduating.
• Among the 53 percent of all building industry workers without any college education, at least 36 percent graduated from high school and only 2 percent report no formal education.

Union Labor

• Over half of all construction workers residing in New York City are union members (Census Bureau 2005).
• Average weekly earnings of union workers are 125 percent of non-union construction workers.
• With 52 percent of the workforce, union participation is similarly high in building services.
• City construction and building service workers are four to five times more unionized than their national counterparts (at13 percent and 11percent nationally), while those in design and real estate are two to e ight times more unionized than the national average(at 9 percent and 4 percent respectively).