A Pilot Investigation of Construction Workforce and Education Inequalities and Biases in Construction/Civil/Architectural Engineering

University Of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas NV

Investigators

Abstract

The construction industry is one of the largest job providers in the U.S. and plays a major role in producing well-paying, middle class, high-quality jobs. Thus, many communities of color are underrepresented in the construction labor force. According to a recent dataset from the U.S. Census Bureau (2014), male workers in the construction sector, on average, comprise 16% more than their female counterparts, and white workers, on average, comprise almost 24% more than their black or African American counterparts. The challenges in the construction workforce are many, and the solutions are complex. Increasing racial and gender diversity in engineering is an imperative for the National Science Foundation and a priority driven by the changing demographics and need for high-quality engineering workforce, including in the construction industry. Using multiple data collection methods, the investigators propose to obtain initial data studying inequalities and biases in construction/civil/architectural engineering. More specifically, the investigators aim to study the current inequality situation within the construction workforce by race/ethnicity and gender, along with the spatial distribution of wage gaps among U.S. metros/trades by utilizing nationwide data sources and structural inequalities and biases within the national educational system as they relate to AEC by surveying high school students about their perceptions/ interests/ images/understanding on the AEC industry. In particular, this study will focus on African American, Hispanic, and women. The timing of this study is optimal because it possesses great promise in addressing an imminent labor shortage issue while helping the construction industry recruit a more diversified labor workforce.