Wisconsin Leads Construction Industry Rankings in 2024 Merit Shop Scorecard

Wisconsin is the No. 1 state for construction, according to Associated Builders and Contractors’ 10th annual Merit Shop Scorecard. The scorecard, released annually since 2015, ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on policies and programs that better career pathways in construction, further workforce development, and strengthen fair and open competition on taxpayer-funded construction projects. Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Florida rounded out the top five states in 2024, in ranking order.

According to the press release, Wisconsin has been a high-performing state year after year, but takes the top spot for the highest scores on fair and open competition policies prohibiting government-mandated project labor agreements, ensuring market-driven wages on public works jobs and protecting workers with its right-to-work law; a sustained level of positive job growth in construction, with a five-year job growth rate of 4.4%; a continued commitment to quality career and technical education, delivering a 97.4% graduation rate for students in career technical education programs, and a 91.4% rate of postsecondary CTE students placed in careers and/or apprenticeship programs; and a workforce development pipeline that delivers a construction labor supply over 100% of demand amidst a severe nationwide construction labor shortage.

Arkansas came in second behind Wisconsin, one step up from 2023 when it ranked third. The state has excelled at all aspects of fostering and educating a skilled workforce, boasting a 6.1% growth rate in construction industry jobs and delivering outstanding results in CTE. Arkansas also maintains a fair and open public construction market, allowing the full breadth of the state’s construction workforce to pursue projects.

Florida, Arizona, and Indiana remain high-performing states. All three maintain exceptional CTE and workforce development programs, delivering a robust and highly skilled workforce. Indiana continues to protect public projects from the threat of PLAs on the state and local level when possible, including targeted policies such as the prohibition of government-mandated PLAs on large-scale projects in Indianapolis. This highlights Indiana’s successful defense of the merit shop and taxpayers in a historically difficult Midwestern political environment.

Florida, a former first-place state, continues to perform highly across the board. With one of the largest economies in the country and extensive labor needs, it has maintained a particular focus on innovative career-centered education opportunities. This continues to yield positive results for craft professionals and the construction workforce as the state experiences record population growth.

Arizona returned to the top 10 in 2024 due to a 5.8% job growth rate in construction and a 90% labor supply versus demand, along with the state’s continued maintenance of a prohibition on government-mandated PLAs and other policy vehicles fostering an attractive business environment.

The bottom five states, in ranking order, were Washington, the District of Columbia, Illinois, New York, and Hawaii, each receiving poor ratings for creating conditions and policies that allow merit shop contractors to thrive, according to the press release.

The 2024 Building America: The Merit Shop Scorecard rates state laws, programs, policies and statistics in seven categories: project labor agreements, prevailing wage laws, right-to-work laws, public-private partnerships, workforce development, CTE and job growth rate.