Construction Laborer
Standard Occupational Classification 47-2061
I happened to be driving in Ohio in a northwesterly
direction on Route 250 just coming up on Norwalk when I passed the sign below
for a construction company wanting to hire laborers for $34.00 and hour, an
amount that translates into an annual salary of $70,720 a year assuming a forty
hour week and two weeks’ vacation.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines an occupation,
construction laborer, as one of its standard occupations in its Standard
Occupational Classifications (SOC) Manual. Construction laborer, a.k.a.
47-2061, had nationwide employment of 1,096,780 in 2025, the biggest
construction occupation of 61 construction and extraction occupations. The SOC
defines it as a job that “perform tasks involving physical labor at the
construction site. May operate hand and power tools of all types: air hammers,
earth tampers, cement mixers . . . May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches,
brace excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble . . .”
BLS reports an increase of 209,200 employed as construction laborers from 2015 to 2025 but a smaller increase of 162,780 from 2005 to 2025. The median national wage for construction laborers in 2025 was $22.66 an hour, up from $12.22 in 2005 and $15.34 in 2015. The annual inflation rate from 2015 to 2025 was 3.11 percent, but the annual percentage increase in the median wage was 3.97 percent, assuring an increase in buying power.
The Ohio median wage for construction laborers in 2025 was $26.96, up from $15.51 in 2005 and $17.66 in 2015. The annual percentage increase in the median wage was 4.32 percent, well above the 3.11 inflation rate. BLS reports the 90th percentile wage for construction laborers as $37.54 an hour; 90th percentile wage in Ohio is $38.04 an hour. A $34.00 assures at least 10 percent of the 1,096,780 construction laborers, or 109,678, make more than $34.00 an hour, but nothing assures applicants will get full time work; the annual wage may not be as much as it looks.
The $34.00 an hour wage for a job doing physical labor
that requires no formal educational credential of any kind, not even a high
school degree, suggests a company hoping to draw applicants from other types of
lower paid, part time work. For a construction job doing day long physical
labor suggests a job for younger applicants, but BLS reports population growth
of those 16 to 34 years old has slowed to a crawl suggesting a need to add to
the wage offer to get what they need. The Trump administration shutting down
immigration and deporting immigrants confirms another source of the higher
wage. For the savvy teen finishing high school it’s an entry level job with a
path to a skilled trade.
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