Nearly two decades after the Great Recession devastated Connecticut’s construction industry, employment in the sector has climbed to its highest level since before the housing market collapse.
Connecticut’s construction workforce reached 65,200 workers in April, its highest level since 2008, according to seasonally adjusted state labor data.
Industry leaders credit the milestone to years of workforce development efforts, infrastructure investment and a growing pipeline of public- and private-sector projects.
“The volume of really nice projects — large, complex healthcare, higher ed, K-12, housing and whatnot — is far beyond what I’ve seen in my 20 years in this market,” said Eric Cushman, a vice president leading Gilbane Building Co.’s Connecticut operations. “The demand is coming across all market sectors at a collectively impressive scale.”
The national construction and real estate development firm’s Connecticut revenue has grown by nearly 70% since 2021, Cushman said. As a result, Gilbane has expanded its Connecticut workforce by about 10% over the past year, to 130 employees, and continues to hire project managers, engineers and superintendents.
Much of the hiring is aimed at meeting future demand. While Gilbane’s workload in Connecticut has remained consistently strong in 2025 and 2026, Cushman said the company expects even more activity over the next three years based on current inquiries and requests.
He said the growing pipeline includes projects across a range of sectors, from publicly funded infrastructure and institutional work to private development, reflecting what he sees as continued economic growth in Connecticut.
This April’s construction employment number was the highest since April 2008, when the industry employed 67,600 people, according to the Connecticut Department of Labor.
Employment plunged during the Great Recession, falling to 50,500 in April 2010 as the collapse of housing and mortgage markets rippled through the economy.
Construction employment gradually recovered over the following decade, climbing back above 60,000 by 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic briefly reversed that progress, pushing employment down to 49,400 in April 2020, before the industry resumed a steady recovery.
Infrastructure spending bears fruit
State Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said employment in highway, street and bridge construction is at its highest level in more than a decade. In July 2025, there were 7,700 people employed in highway construction, a 15-year high, Eucalitto said.
Federal and state transportation spending in Connecticut has trended upward over the past dozen years, doubling from $1.3 billion in fiscal 2014 to a planned $2.69 billion in the current fiscal year.
Transportation projects take many years to design, permit and fund, Eucalitto said. As a result, many of today’s projects can be traced back to investments made a decade ago.
In 2015, state lawmakers and Gov. Dannel Malloy approved the $2.8 billion “Let’s Go CT” transportation bonding package, a long-term initiative aimed at modernizing the state’s infrastructure.
The funding supported planning and design work for projects that later became eligible for federal dollars under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. State lawmakers also increased Connecticut’s transportation borrowing cap, allowing the state to secure matching funds needed to maximize federal aid, Eucalitto said.
Those investments helped advance major transportation projects, including the seven-year, $712 million reconstruction of the interchange connecting interstates 91 and 691 with Route 15 in Meriden.
Donald Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, credited the sector’s growth to a combination of federal infrastructure spending, increased state transportation investment and rising private-sector development.
“You take all these things together, you’ve got a tremendous amount of momentum going in Connecticut right now,” Shubert said.
He also credited a culture change at the state Department of Transportation with accelerating project delivery after years of sluggish activity.
“The department has changed its focus,” Shubert said. “They’re finding the balance where you can get all your compliance done and still get projects on the street.”
Despite the employment milestone, Shubert said he does not believe the industry has reached its ceiling. Connecticut contractors, material suppliers and construction firms still have capacity to take on additional work, he said.
Marc Okun, Connecticut regional manager for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, said interest in the trades has risen along with construction activity.
Attendance at the union’s monthly information sessions at its Wallingford training center has nearly doubled over the past year, regularly drawing between 80 and 100 people, compared with roughly 40 to 50 previously.
Concerns about automation and artificial intelligence, combined with student debt and uncertainty about traditional career paths, are helping drive interest, Okun said.
The carpenters’ union’s membership has increased by roughly 2.5% over the past year, to about 3,000 members, he added.
Economic momentum
Daniel O’Keefe, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, said the state’s economy hit a turning point in 2018 and has since grown by nearly $100 billion.
Housing permits, business investment and growth in industries ranging from advanced manufacturing and professional services to healthcare and finance are all up, he said.
“That’s the market betting on the forward Connecticut economy,” O’Keefe said.
In a March blog post, O’Keefe noted that Connecticut’s 18.3% increase in housing permits in 2025 was the fastest percentage growth in the nation.
He expects continued investment as businesses and developers respond to growing economic activity.
“I do fundamentally believe we are in a positive self-amplification cycle right now,” he said.
Bill Jodice, owner of Bloomfield-based PDS Engineering & Construction, said projects delayed by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and inflation are now moving forward.
“We’re really busy and we may even do much more than $70 million (in revenue) this year, but I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch,” Jodice said.
Moderating inflation has helped restore investor confidence, he said.
“Once it was down around 3% for a while, then people got comfortable. And then I think it opened the floodgates,” Jodice said.
His 45-person firm typically manages about 15 commercial projects at a time, including warehouses, municipal and medical facilities, schools and apartment developments. Projects can range from $2 million jobs lasting several months to $50 million developments spanning multiple years.
He sees work everywhere he turns.
“It’s not just commercial vertical construction,” Jodice noted. “You drive down any highway in the state or roads, and there’s always construction signs everywhere. You’re always going around some kind of road work. That’s employing a lot of people right there.”
Despite the industry’s recent growth, Eucalitto said future construction activity will depend in part on continued federal investment.
The current five-year federal transportation funding bill expires this year. Eucalitto said a version of its replacement being advanced in Congress would not keep pace with inflation, potentially reducing future buying power for transportation projects.
“We’re talking about a 0.5% increase in growth in funding, which ensures that we would go backwards,” Eucalitto said.
