Craft labor insights in Austin
Every week, thousands of craft professionals across the U.S. join the Skillit platform to connect with the nation’s best and biggest general and specialty trade contractors. This generates millions of proprietary data points which we anonymize and structure into labor intelligence to help decision-makers gain a competitive edge in a tight labor market.
Key Findings
As of December 11th 2024, craft professionals in Austin are:
Austin craft professionals, particularly carpenters, are more willing to accept lower pay (51%) for the right job compared to the national average.
In addition, current hourly pay in Austin is 0.98 times the national average with the difference in pay between Austin and the national average most pronounced for Laborers ($3.20) and Drywallers (-$3.56).
Austin craft professionals are also most likely to be motivated by good benefits (42%), followed by training & upskilling opportunities (29%), career mobility (20%) and a women-friendly culture (9%).
Desired pay is relatively consistent across most trades at 0.90 times the national averages and they expect 0.43 times the pay improvement compared to their national counterparts.
Our data reveals that Kiewit is the most prominent construction employer in Austin, with Primoris, Fluor, and Bechtel being other significant players. Tesla is notable for employing laborers and concrete workers and due to their current infrastructure growth.
On average, craft workers in Austin are 0.46 times as likely to be female (3.26%) than their peers nationally (7.15%). However, craft professionals are 1.6X more likely to sign up for a women-friendly workplace. Recruiters can note that this is an area of opportunity for hiring practices.
Austin’s craft workers typically score higher on assessments and are more experienced. This insight, alongside the pay data above makes Austin a very attractive market for recruiters that have a growing workforce and seek quality talent.
Recruiters should also note that authorization to work is a key challenge because craft workers in Austin Texas are 2.9X less likely to be eligible to work in the U.S than their national peers.
In Austin, 2.2X of craft professionals are more likely to prefer communicating in Spanish, compared to their peers nationally (8.7%).
When communicating with craft workers, recruiters are 1.83 times more likely to get a response in Austin (67%) compared to the national average (43%). This indicates that once contact is established, Austin craft workers are more likely to respond positively or engage with recruiters.
On the flip side, workers in Austin take 1.25 times longer to respond to recruiter outreach (4 days on average) compared to the national average (3 days on average).
Craft workers in Austin experience a 3.1 X greater one-way commute distance.
The migration patterns found in our data suggests Austin is a major draw for craft workers due to its economic opportunities, reasonable cost of living and quality of life with the relative size of the craft workforce willing to relocate to Austin.
Austin craft workers are less likely to hold OSHA 10 and 62 certifications and more likely to hold OSHA 30 and 40. Based on this data, recruiters have an opportunity to offer opportunities to level up to OSHA 62 as part of their upskilling recruitment offers.
Current craft pay in Austin
Carpenters, Electricians, and Plumbers in Austin earn less than the national average, notably laborers. Other trades like Concrete Workers, HEOs, and Welders in Austin have wages roughly similar to the national average.
Craft pay expectations in Austin
Overall, workers in Austin generally desire lower pay than the national average across most trades.
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Craft compensation flexibility in Austin
Austin craft workers, particularly carpenters, are more willing to accept lower pay (51%) for the right job compared to the national average. Nationally, workers show less variation in their willingness to accept lower pay, staying around the 20% mark across trades with laborers bucking the trend and being the least willing to accept lower pay (4%).
Non-financial compensation trends
In Austin, the importance of benefits shows some variation across trades, but generally show as a strong motivator, within the 30-40% range. Training & Upskilling is consistently one of the top two motivators, often competing with benefits for the highest ranking. Women-Friendly is generally the least important factor for the majority of the trades shown.
Meet Austin’s biggest employers of craft professionals
Our data reveals that Kiewit is the most prominent employer in Austin with carpenters, laborers, concrete workers, HEOs, Plumbers and Pipefitters all citing it as a past or current employer and indicating its extensive involvement in diverse construction projects.
Tesla is also notable for employing Laborers and Concrete workers, reflecting its large-scale plant construction activities in the region while Primoris, Fluor, and Bechtel are significant employers for specialized trades like Welders and Pipefitters, underscoring their role in complex engineering and construction projects.
Skill, Experience & Certifications
Overall, craft workers in Austin tend to have 1.11 times higher average skill assessment scores than their national counterparts in most trades, with the most significant differences seen in carpenters (+20%), Pipelayers (+10%) and welders (+9%). Electricians and Plumbers are the exceptions, where the national average scores are 2.9% and 1.9% higher respectively.
Craft workers in Austin generally have 2.7 more years of construction experience (19.0) compared to the national average across most trades (17.7), with the most significant differences seen in welders (+3.8), heavy equipment operators (+3.0), and Pipefitters (+2.4). The only exception is Drywallers, where the national average experience is 1.1 years higher.
Work authorization
Overall, many craft professionals in Austin are less likely to be authorized to work compared to the national average, with some variations between different trades regarding willingness to disclose authorization status. Drywallers in Austin are the most likely trade to be authorized to work in the U.S (55%) and Welders in Austin are the least likely trade to be authorized to work in the U.S (38%).
Gender and language
Craft professionals in Austin are 0.46 times as likely to be female - less than half the national average.The percentage of women in all trades is consistently below 5% in both Austin and nationally. Laborers have the highest representation of women in Austin (4.6%).
On average, craft workers in Austin are 2.24 times more likely to cite Spanish as their preferred language (19.4%) when compared to their peers nationally (8.7%).
Contactability and communication
Recruiters in Austin are more successful in connecting with craft professionals than those at the national level - it is generally easier and faster to contact Austin craft workers - around 80% vs. the national average of around 60%. Austin craft professionals also respond to recruiter outreach more quickly than the national average - 2.5 days vs. 3 days. Email, SMS and calls are all effective means of communication. Recruiters should know that this is a great opportunity to build a robust talent pipeline.
Union membership
Compared to national data, Austin’s craft workers tend to have higher union memberships. Carpenters are (12.6%) compared to the national average (7.9%), Electricians are (12.2%) compared to the national average (9.6%) and Laborers and Concrete Workers also show a slightly higher membership in Austin (11.0% and 12.3%) than the national averages (6.0% and 9.6%).
One-way commute distance
Many trades in Austin exhibit longer commute distances compared to the national average, suggesting potential differences in job availability or regional factors influencing commuting. Pipefitters experience the highest commute distance (43.60 miles) and drywallers experience the shortest commute distance (28.26 miles).
Migration
Overall, there is a strong trend of craft labor moving to, or willing to move to Austin. Most craft labor migrating or willing to migrate to Austin comes from nearby regions in the state, likely due to geographic proximity and ease of relocation. Texas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana are the highest-interest origin states.
Relatedly, most craft workers are willing to travel a distance of up to 843 miles on average to migrate to Austin for work with laborers willing to travel the greatest distance of up to 910 miles on average and carpenters - an outlier in this regard - showing a willingness to travel the least distance of up to just 402 miles on average.
OSHA
Austin craft workers are less likely to hold OSHA 10 and 62 certifications and more likely to hold OSHA 30 and 40. On average, craft workers in Austin are 0.96 times as likely to hold OSHA 10 certification (68.40%) as their national peers (71,41%) but are 1.11 times as likely to hold OSHA 30 certification (28.42%) as their national peers (25.60%). OSHA 40 and 62 certifications are far less common.
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Our methodology
All data included in this report is as of August 30, 2024 and based on the anonymized data from over 20,000 Skillit member profiles located in, or interested in relocating to, Dallas and 12 months of communications between employers and craft professionals aggregated across the Skillit platform.
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