The Capitol Hill debate on immigration became the-can-kicked-down-the-road in the stopgap funding continuing resolution that re-opened the federal government after a 3-day shutdown this past week.

Meanwhile, as builders nationwide anticipate more new-home starts--and completions--and, increasingly, those units are planned to occur in new communities for entry-level first time buyers that are farther out geographically from urban job centers, the pressure's on those builders to secure and retain skilled trade workers if they're going to stay on time and on budget with their production plans.

This is the time of the year builders in geographies that have been susceptible to bad weather--excessive rain, snow, freezing, storms, etc.--are keen to get slabs poured, rough-trade work underway, and roofs on without big delays in their schedules.

Hope's not a strategy, but when it comes to the late winter-early Spring weather, that's about all there is.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Home Builders took a deep dive into U.S. construction workforce--residential, commercial, infrastructure, etc.--data, highlighting the importance foreign-born workers play in building everything just about everywhere. The NAHB actively advocates a memorialized "guest worker" program that would allow immigrant workers to legally work on construction job sites on certain terms.

The NAHB analysis--which draws on the Census' American Community Survey as its primary database--emphasizes that the fact that America has become increasingly reliant on immigrant labor during housing's recovery does not mean the industry has seen a recent influx of workers coming in from beyond U.S. borders. The report's author, NAHB economist Natalia Siniavskaia, Ph.D. notes that :

The share of foreign-born workers in the US construction labor force has been rising since the housing recovery got underway. Immigrant workers now account for close to one in four workers, the highest share recorded by the ACS. The time-series analysis shows that the rising share of immigrants in construction cannot be explained by an unusually high number of immigrants joining the industry. Rather, a slow, delayed and reluctant post-recession return of native-born workers underlies the shift towards the higher reliance on immigrants in the construction work force.

Naturally, the share of immigrants in some of the construction trades is higher than in others and the share of immigrants in construction is more pronounced in some states than in others.

NAHB data looks through a geographical lens here, noting that California and Washington, D.C. are where immigrants represent the highest percentage of construction work forces--42%--with Texas, New York, Nevada, and Florida all with 35% or more immigrants in their respective construction labor pool. Dr. Siniavskaia writes:

California and the District of Columbia take the lead on the state list with 42% of the construction labor force coming from abroad. The foreign-born share is similarly high in Texas, exceeding 41%. In New York and Nevada, around 37% of the construction work force is foreign-born, and in Florida, the share approaches 35%.

However, the reliance on foreign-born construction labor is also evident outside of these traditional immigrant magnets. For example, in states like Georgia, Virginia and Maryland, immigrants account for close to 30% of the construction labor force, as of 2016. While immigrants comprise less than 16% of the labor force in Virginia, their share in construction exceeds 29%. Similarly, in Georgia, less than 14% of labor force is foreign-born, but the share of immigrants in the construction labor force is twice as high.

The association looks too at the correlation between trades where there's the highest percentages of immigrant labor, and those that are most often reported by builders as having a shortage of workers.

Concentration of immigrants is particularly high in some of the trades needed to build a home, like carpenters, painters, drywall/ceiling tile installers, brick masons, and construction laborers – trades that require less formal education but consistently register some of the highest labor shortages.

Here are the 10 construction trades with the highest shares of foreign-born workers.

Construction Occupation 

 

Total

Immigrant Share

 Construction laborers

 1,896,422

 37%

 Plasterers, stucco masons

 34,712

 54%

 Drywall installers, ceiling tile installers, and tapers

 153,807

 49%

 Painters and paperhangers

 543,426

 48%

 Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers

 155,580

 46%

 Roofers

 224,392

 45%

 Brickmasons, blockmasons, stonemasons, and reinforcing iron and rebar workers

 152,890

 39%

 Explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blasters

 2,007

 38%

 Insulation workers

 46,943

 37%

 Cement masons, concrete finishers, and terrazzo workers

 66,055

 33%

 Fence erectors

 30,876

 33%

Source: the 2016 ACS, PUMS, NAHB estimates.