Interactive Insights

Recruiting Construction Workers

A Deep Dive into Talent Sourcing and Recruitment Advertising Benchmarks

Construction Workers

A Bit About These Talented Professionals

Welcome to the realm of construction laborers and helpers, where physical prowess and craftsmanship bring projects to life. From cleaning and preparing construction sites to operating machinery and assisting skilled craft workers, this occupation covers a wide spectrum of tasks, each essential to the construction process.

Despite projected growth of 4% from 2021 to 2031, around 168,500 openings are on the horizon – largely due to occupational drain.

Construction laborers are at the forefront, cleaning debris and setting the groundwork for dreams to become reality. Helpers, on the other hand, team up with craftworkers like electricians and carpenters, lending a hand in various tasks to ensure seamless progress.

With special training, laborers may find themselves transporting and using explosives or running hydraulic boring machines to excavate tunnels. Others may become certified to handle asbestos, lead, or chemicals, adding valuable expertise to the workforce.

Ready to build the future with great-fit talent, at the optimal cost?

It’s time to let Joveo’s data do the talking!

0%
Year-on-year decrease in CPC
0%
Year-on-year increase in median advertised salary
0%
10% Year-on-year increase in unique postings

CPA App-lause or App-loss

CPAsCost per application (CPA) measures the cost incurred by an organization to receive one job application from a potential candidate. depend on CPCs, as well as a bunch of other factors! While you can’t control everything (market conditions, for one) you can defo work on perfecting that application process.

When it comes to optimizing, keep some key factors in mind, like employer brand, recruiter time and effort, CPA, application quality, and candidate experience. While easy apply CPAs are low, recruiters may not get all the info they need and apps from unqualified or low-intent candidates may be stacked sky high! On the other end of the spectrum, a lengthy apply process can lead to high applicant drop-off, poor CX, and a high CPA.

Recommendation: Examine your app process to figure out what info your team needs – whether it is easy apply, optimized ATS-based apps, or something more complex, your recruitment strategy should be data-driven.

Source: Joveo and Lightcast Research

CPC, Ya You Know Me!

Nationally, we are seeing an average CPCCost per click (CPC) is the cost incurred by an organization for each click on a job advertisement or recruitment campaign.
 of $.74… but that’s not going to help you plan, is it? Wyoming offers the lowest CPC at just $0.02 per click. On the flip side, if you’re looking at the state where clicks are most expensive, Mississippi takes the lead with a CPC of $2.03. Yowza!

Recommendation: Get the most value for your investment! Utilize this data, understand seasonality and macro trends, and stay flexible. Monitor and compare performance across states and experiment with A/B testingA/B testing refers to a randomized experimentation process. Two or more versions of a variable (job title, job description, etc.) are shown to different segments of users at the same time. The goal is to determine which version leaves the maximum impact and drives conversions.
 to optimize CPCs and conversion rates.

Source: Joveo and Lightcast Research

Demand-Supply: The Golden Ratio

There’s a trend in these numbers, as the ratio of hires to postings fluctuates over the months, reflecting seasonality. On average, we see a ratio of 8.23, which means that eight hires are made for every one posting.

Recommendation: If your ratio is less than 8.23, we strongly recommend an old fashioned recruitment marketing audit. That means reviewing job titles, descriptions, compensation, and benefits compared with your competition – leave ‘em in the dust! Oh, and how could we neglect reach, ad dollars, and return on ad spend per source!

Source: Joveo and Lightcast Research

Mind Your Demand-Supply Gap… by State

Wondering how aggressive your sourcing needs to be in a given state? Well, this chart will come in mighty handy, giving insight into the demand-supply gap, and indicating just how aggressive you need to be when it comes to talent sourcing or job advertising.

For example, if you’re looking to hire in West Virginia, Mississippi, or Delaware, you shouldn’t have a problem. In fact, these three top our list of easiest to fill states when we take a look at demand and supply of construction laborers. On the other end of the spectrum, filling your hiring funnel in New Hampshire, Nebraska, or South Dakota is going to be a challenge, given the low supply and high demand!

Recommendation: If the color of your state is in the deep gold, it may indicate that you need to jazz up your job content, A/B test titles, expand across locationsGeographic optimizations expand the targeted location to include surrounding communities. This is an easy way to extend your reach and reduce CPAs by sourcing from less competitive markets., and spend considerably more on recruitment marketing and job advertising to attract more great-fit candidates.

Source: Joveo and Lightcast Research

Who Posts the Most?

Competition for construction workers is fairly average, with a posting intensity of 3:1 across the occupation, nationally. Top employers like Mastec North America and Evans Construction distribute their jobs with the same intensity, while some other behemoths like Oldcastle Infrastructure (5:1) and Maine Drilling & Blasting (4:1) beat the national occupational average. Fixtman and Cleary Building Corp. top them all with a posting intensity of 9:1!

Recommendation: Be sure to get your posts out to all the right job boards and on social. We may be a little biased, but one great way to automatically post jobs across the best-performing sites is to use programmatic job advertising – plus you can take advantage of job titleJob title expansion means leveraging alternative job titles, using commonly searched terms. These are published as new listings in addition to the original post. and geographic expansions.

Source: Joveo and Lightcast Research

Show Candidates the Money!

While the national median salary is approximately $40,500, advertised median salaries over a 12-month period hit $43,500, as of December of 2023. We typically see advertised and actual salaries fairly close when the demand-supply gap is lower within an occupation. Employers advertising salaries higher than this will definitely have a competitive advantage when it comes to sourcing!

Recommendation: If you offer a great salary, don’t forget to call it out in your job description, even if your state doesn’t enforce it legally. Currently, 59% of unique job postings for construction workers include wage info. This will help you attract more candidates, lower CPCs, and fill your funnel faster.

Source: Joveo and Lightcast Research

An Eye on DE&I: How Do You Measure Up?

We know diversity is important! In fact,  67% of today’s candidates take a serious look at potential employers’ DE&I programs, and what they find influences their decision making. And, as we well know, the more diverse your workforce, the better your business outcomes!

Recommendation: Does your state make it in the top or bottom three? If you find you’re falling a bit short, have no fear! There are a plethora of relevant job boards to give your DE&I program the boost it needs

Source: Joveo and Lightcast Research

Occupational Gain to Attract and Retain

By understanding what occupations construction workers come from, you can tailor your job ad content and channels to reach those audiences, in addition to the standard talent supply in your area. For example, many construction workers come from previous roles in warehousing and retail sales.

Recommendation: Identify the right channels with a combination of keyword research, using a programmatic job advertising partner with publisher-level historical data and expertise. Now go get those great-fit candidates!

Source: Joveo and Lightcast Research

Curious about how your own talent sourcing and recruitment advertising efforts compare? Find out what it takes to be best-in-class and leave your competition in the dust.

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