Craft Worker Insights from Skillit’s Proprietary Data

At Skillit, we’ve built the world’s first platform dedicated to sourcing qualified craft workers and in the process transforming how construction companies and general contractors find, assess, and hire skilled craft professionals. By leveraging our proprietary data and organizing it into comprehensive market reports, we provide unmatched insights into craft worker motivations, qualifications, and experiences. These insights empower construction companies to make informed hiring decisions, aligning the right workers with the right projects for lasting success.

The days of simply posting a job and waiting for résumés are long gone. With the construction industry facing an unprecedented labor shortage, skilled workers—carpenters, electricians, heavy machinery operators, plumbers, and others—can now be more selective about their opportunities. Through our data and platform, we bridge this gap by helping recruiters craft strategies that resonate with workers’ motivations and match their qualifications. Our unique sourcing platform streamlines hiring, enabling companies to hit deadlines, expand into new markets, and maintain a consistent flow of projects.

Key Data Categories in Our Reports

Our market reports are powered by millions of anonymized worker profiles and transaction data points collected directly from our platform. These insights span multiple critical areas of the hiring process, helping construction companies overcome challenges and achieve better outcomes.

Craft Worker Pay. Understanding pay expectations is crucial in attracting craft workers. Our reports provide a nuanced analysis of pay rates across different crafts, factoring in regional differences and national averages. Workers on the platform supply detailed pay ranges for 34 key craft positions, offering both ceiling and floor estimates. Beyond base wages, our data delves into non-financial motivators like benefits and career mobility, which often play a decisive role in a worker’s choice of employer. This comprehensive pay data ensures companies remain competitive in attracting talent while standing out from other recruiters.

Skills, Experience, and Certifications. Matching the right worker to the right job goes beyond compensation—it requires a thorough understanding of a worker’s skills, experience, and certifications. We design proctored skills assessments to verify workers’ capabilities, ensuring they meet the requirements of a specific role. This is particularly critical as not all carpenters, electricians, or plumbers possess the same expertise.

We also triangulate skills, experience, and job history to confirm that workers meet employer expectations. This detailed approach minimizes mismatches and ensures both employers and workers achieve their goals. Our insights even reveal overlapping skills across trades, helping companies identify versatile workers who can transition between roles. Additionally, we provide data on OSHA certifications, union membership, and other qualifications that can influence hiring strategies, reducing risks and driving successful placements.

Work Authorization. Even the most skilled worker cannot be hired without proper work authorization. That’s why we offer detailed insights into authorization rates across trades and regions, comparing them to national averages. This information is invaluable for companies operating in new markets or navigating complex regulatory environments, helping them avoid delays and compliance issues.

Gender and Language Diversity. Fostering inclusivity and effective communication on job sites is more important than ever. Our reports break down gender composition and preferred languages of potential candidates, helping companies create supportive environments and improve team cohesion. For companies and contractors working on Federal contracts, this data is critical to demonstrating equitable hiring practices, which includes employing workers from specific demographics and local communities.

Contactability and Communication. Identifying the right candidate is just the beginning—ensuring timely and reliable communication is equally important. Our platform provides exclusive insights into contactability and communication trends, thanks to built-in messaging and AI-powered phone and SMS tools. This allows us to streamline candidate outreach, helping employers set realistic expectations about the number of candidates they need to contact to secure a hire.

Commute and Migration. Long commutes are often a hidden barrier to worker reliability. Our data provides detailed commute analyses, helping companies understand typical travel times and identify workers with convenient access to job sites. For construction professionals willing to relocate–either per diem “road warriors” or workers seeking better, but more permanent opportunities in a new location–we also offer migration data. This reveals which workers are open to relocate–either temporarily or permanently–for the right opportunity. This information expands recruiting efforts, ensuring a better match between workers and projects.

Skillit’s Unique Approach to Craft Worker Insights

Our platform is built on a foundation of worker-first principles, ensuring both employers and craft professionals benefit from the data and tools we provide. By constantly refining our datasets and expanding our worker pool, we remain at the forefront of craft worker sourcing and data. Here are some standout of features of our approach:

Worker-Centric Data Collection. We gather detailed information directly from workers, creating rich profiles that go beyond résumés. These profiles include not just skills and certifications but also workers’ preferences, goals, and motivations. It is the one profile to rule them all for the worker. It puts the worker in control and allows them to showcase their talents for qualified opportunities with reputable employers, who actively seek them out on our platform. This process ingrains trust in us by the worker and ensures that they keep their profile and data up-to-date and accurate. This data ensures that platform searches produce the right candidates, reducing time-to-hire and improving satisfaction for both parties.

Proactive Talent Matching. Our advanced algorithms match workers to roles based on their skills, experience, and preferences, eliminating guesswork and streamlining the hiring process. This proactive approach ensures companies find the best candidates efficiently.

Scalability and Adaptability. Whether a company is looking to hire a few workers per month or scale a team of 100 craft workers for a major project, our data and platform can adapt to meet their needs. Our reports are tailored to specific markets and roles, providing actionable insights that drive better hiring decisions.

The Business Impact of Skillit’s Insights

By tapping into our proprietary data, construction companies can achieve measurable benefits:

• Increase Revenue: Matching the right workers to projects ensures on-time, on-budget completion, allowing companies to take on more jobs and grow.

• Expand Markets: Our migration and commute data enables confident entry into new markets knowing they have a reliable craft worker sourcing tool.

• Improve Retention: Aligning job offerings with worker motivations strengthens relationships and reduces turnover.

• Optimize Efficiency: Verified skills and certifications minimize job site errors, streamlining operations and driving better project outcomes, as well as craft retention.

Our proprietary data has the potential to reshape sourcing labor in the construction industry by addressing one of its most pressing challenges: the craft worker shortage. With insights into pay expectations, skills verification, work authorization, diversity, communication, and mobility, we empower companies to make smarter hiring decisions. Our worker-first platform ensures that candidates are not only qualified but also motivated to contribute to their projects’ success.

By accessing our market reports and utilizing our verticalized sourcing tools, construction companies can stay ahead of the competition, attract top talent, and achieve their project goals with predictability. As the industry continues to evolve, our data-driven approach will remain an essential resource for navigating the complexities of craft worker recruitment.