The trade press keeps calling it a labor shortage. On our jobsites it looks simpler than that. The contractors losing good people cannot keep them, and the ones who keep them stopped competing on pay a long time ago. Here is how we hold a crew together, and why it shows up in your project.
We have run remodels on Long Island since 1987, and the one thing that decides whether a project goes well is not the plan or the price. It is whether the crew that starts your dormer is the crew that finishes it.
Associated Builders and Contractors estimates the construction industry needs 349,000 net new workers in 2026 and 456,000 in 2027. Read the fine print and the story changes. A majority of that demand is not new building. It is replacing people who are retiring or walking off the job. The average construction worker is now in his early forties, and the National Center for Construction Education and Research projects that roughly 41 percent of the current workforce could retire by 2031.
So the headline says hiring. The reality is keeping. When a foreman with 30 years on the tools retires, he does not just take a headcount with him. He takes the judgment, the shortcuts, and the standards that a new hire needs years to rebuild. That is why we read this the same way the leadership coaches do, that the shortage is really a leadership problem before it is a hiring one. Pay gets people in the door. It does not keep them there. And the outfits raising wages 15 and 20 percent to compete are watching turnover stay right where it was.
We decided a long time ago not to run that race. If you want to know what over 35 years on Long Island actually buys, it is a bench of people who already know how we build.
Most contractors count the recruiter fee and a week of training and call it a day. They do not count the productivity drag while the new guy learns the standards, the rework because he does not know the quality bar yet, the schedule slip, or the drain on the crew training him for the fourth time this year. SHRM puts the honest number at 50 to 200 percent of salary per departure. Run your own crew through it below.
We have hired plenty of people who left another outfit, and the reasons are boringly consistent. Almost none of them lead with money.
The number one reason skilled people leave. A lead who yells, plays favorites, cannot make a call, or takes credit for the crew's work. No paycheck buys loyalty to that.
Good people want to see the next step and the pay that comes with it. When the path is invisible, they go find one at the shop down the road that shows them one.
Materials not there. Plans changing three times a week. Nobody clearly in charge. People will take less money to work somewhere the day is not a fire drill.
Getting talked down to, blamed in front of the crew, treated like a number instead of a tradesperson. That wears down the best people fastest.
People stay when they can see where they are going. So we spell it out from day one, with the skills and the pay bumps attached to each step.
Learns our standards on real jobs next to a lead who is paid to teach, not just to produce.
Owns the work in front of them and holds the quality bar without being watched over.
Runs a piece of the job, coaches the newer hands, and answers for the standard on site.
Runs the whole site so the owner does not have to be the foreman on every project.
Here is where this stops being an industry story and becomes your project. When a contractor churns through people, your job gets a rotating cast, and every new face is a fresh chance for a missed detail, a slower week, and a site nobody owns. A crew that has built dormers, kitchens, and extensions together for years already knows the standard, so your project moves at one pace and holds one bar of quality.
It is also why the crew you meet is the crew that shows up. The site stays clean, the schedule is real because the people running it are not learning as they go, and there is one person clearly in charge of your job. Over 35 years we have kept our reputation on referrals alone, and you cannot do that with a crew that changes every season.
A remodel runs on the crew, not the contract. Keep the same people together and the schedule holds, the quality holds, and the trust holds. That has been the whole business for us since 1987.Ogilvie ContractingFamily Owned and Operated on Long Island
The crew is what actually builds your project. When a contractor churns through workers, your job gets a rotating cast that does not know the standards, and that shows up as delays, rework, and a site nobody takes ownership of. A crew that has worked together for years already knows how we build, so your dormer or kitchen moves at one pace and one standard.
Associated Builders and Contractors estimates the industry needs 349,000 net new workers in 2026 and 456,000 in 2027, and most of that is replacing people who are retiring, not new growth. The average construction worker is now in his early forties, and roughly 41 percent of the current workforce could retire by 2031 according to NCCER. It is a structural gap, which is why we treat keeping our people as the actual job.
Three things. We develop our leads and foremen to manage people, not just swing a hammer. We give every hire a visible path from apprentice to foreman with the pay steps spelled out. And we run the jobsite so materials, plans, and decisions are handled, because chaos drives good people out faster than a low paycheck does.
No, it is the cheaper path. SHRM puts the cost of replacing one worker at 50 to 200 percent of their salary once you count recruiting, training, and lost production. Contractors who churn crews pay that tax over and over and pass it along in the bid. A stable crew is how we hold quality without turning your project into the place a new hire learns on the job.
Tell us about your project. The same crew that starts it is the crew that finishes it, and that is the whole difference. Call us or send the details and we will follow up.
516-781-5749 Prefer to write it out? Start a free quote application or reach us on the contact page.