2026-Q3 Per Diem and Pay Insights Report by RoadDogJobs
8/26/2026
It's a Data Center World, and Construction Labor Is Just Living In It
Rising direct labor costs are now the second-most cited concern among construction firms for 2026, according to the Associated General Contractors of America's Construction Hiring and Business Outlook. Only the difficulty of finding workers at all ranks higher. If you've priced escalation into a bid this year, that's not news. It's just the first time someone put a number on what you've already been feeling.
Here's the number RoadDogJobs is tracking on the ground: construction wages are up 11% year over year, the fastest pace in years. Meanwhile the rest of the market barely moved. Total workforce supply grew 0.7%, demand grew 0.2%. Open job postings did something different, jumping as much as 38% year over year this quarter and snapping a two-year stretch of declines.
None of that lines up cleanly, and that's the actual problem for anyone pricing a 12, 18, or 24-month project right now. It's not whether wages are rising. It's how fast, for which crafts, and whether this quarter's number is a peak or a floor you should be building escalation clauses around.
RoadDogJobs' latest quarterly Per Diem & Pay Insights report breaks all of this down by craft and by region, with six straight quarters of trend data behind it, which is what you actually need to model realistic escalation into a longer contract instead of guessing. Here's the short version.
Two different problems
Contractors are fighting two battles at once this year: finding enough workers, and paying more once they do. Both show up in this quarter's numbers.
- Labor demand (total workforce needed): up 0.2%
- Labor supply: up 0.7%
- Labor rates: up 11.0%
The first two are basically flat, measured as overall workforce levels. Open job postings are a different measure, and they'd been falling year over year for seven of the last eight quarters before this one. Pay grew faster than any of these, about 15 times the rate of supply or demand. Read together, a handful of crafts in a handful of regions are getting bid up hard, while the market looks calm on paper.
The labor gap just widened, and that doesn't happen often
RoadDogJobs tracks a number called the Construction Labor Balance, or CLB. It's the gap between how many workers are available and how many a project needs. This quarter the gap shrank year over year for only the second time in the past 18 months. If your team is setting hiring or pricing plans for next quarter, this is worth building in now.
Employment set a record. Unemployment did something weird.
Construction employment averaged 8.37 million workers in Q2 2026. That's the highest any second quarter has recorded, and the third-highest quarter of any kind. Unemployment usually settles down as a quarter goes on. This time it climbed every month, April through June. Both things happened in the same three months, which is a good reminder that the national number can look calm even when your region and craft mix aren't.
You don't need a data center project to feel data center pricing
This build cycle is different from the last few. Natural gas, manufacturing, and wind didn't pull this hard on this small a group of crafts at once. Data centers are, and contractors are more optimistic about that sector than any other heading into the rest of the year.
Here's the part people miss. You don't have to be bidding a data center job to feel the pricing. If the electricians or pipefitters you need are the same ones a data center GC three counties over is trying to hire, you're competing on their wage scale whether that project has anything to do with you or not. One craft in the report is already running well ahead of the market's 11% average.
Get the full numbers before your next bid
Bechtel, TIC, Kiewit, and Interstates already pull this data every quarter. None of them are guessing at labor costs when they build a bid.
The full 2026-Q3 report includes:
- Pay rate tables for 30+ crafts
- Per diem rates by craft and by region
- Six quarters of trend data
- Comparisons across all seven RoadDogJobs labor market regions
Download the full 2026-Q3 Per Diem & Pay Insights report →
Frequently Asked Questions
How much have construction wages increased in 2026?
Average pay rates were up 11% year over year in Q2 2026, reaching $36.98/hour across the 30+ crafts RoadDogJobs tracks. 74% of trades saw an increase over the same quarter last year.
Why are construction wages rising faster than labor supply and demand?
Total workforce supply grew 0.7% year over year, and demand grew 0.2%. Wages grew 11%. The wage number moved because a handful of crafts and regions are seeing intense competition for a small pool of workers, not because the whole market shifted at once.
What is the Construction Labor Balance (CLB)?
CLB is RoadDogJobs' measure of the gap between available construction labor and the labor a project needs. Lower numbers mean a tighter market. Any number under 100,000 signals a shortage. RoadDogJobs has tracked it monthly since 2000.
Is there a construction labor shortage in 2026?
By the CLB measure, yes. This quarter tightened year over year for only the second time in 18 months. At the same time, employment hit an all-time high for a second quarter, and unemployment rose every month. Taken together, the shortage looks uneven: some crafts and regions are much tighter than others.
Why are data centers driving up construction labor costs?
This build cycle draws on a narrow set of trades at a scale prior cycles didn't reach, and it's the sector contractors are most optimistic about for the rest of the year. Because so many projects need the same crafts at the same time, wages for those trades rise everywhere, including on projects that have nothing to do with data centers.
Which trades work on data center construction, and what are their pay rates?
Electricians do the largest share of the work. Data centers run on massive, redundant power systems, and electrical work alone can account for close to half of total construction cost on a project like this. HVAC and mechanical trades, pipefitters and plumbers, low voltage technicians, and ironworkers round out the core crew. Q2 2026 averages: electricians $42.53/hour, low voltage electricians $41.25/hour, pipefitters $37.59/hour, plumbers $36.48/hour, HVAC $35.81/hour.
Which construction trades have seen the biggest pay increases?
Electricians are out in front. They averaged $42.53/hour in Q2 2026, up 13.1% year over year and well above the 11% market average. The rest of the craft-by-craft comparison is in the full report.
What are current per diem rates for construction workers?
The average per diem rate in Q2 2026 was $124.14 a day. It's climbed for six straight quarters. Rates vary a lot by craft and region. The full breakdown for 30+ crafts across all seven RoadDogJobs regions is in the report.
Download the full 2026-Q3 Per Diem & Pay Insights report →
Sources
Data from BLS (NAICS 23) and RoadDogJobs job postings, Q2 2026.