The U.S. construction industry, roofing included, relies heavily on immigrant labor. As the Associated Builders and Contractors trade group found in a report from last January, nearly half a million vacant construction jobs will remain unfilled in 2025. 

Reporting by ConstructConnect, which aggregates news for the Canadian construction industry, recently published findings underscoring just how dependent the U.S. is on migrant labor, legal and otherwise, to help fill thousands of vacant positions.

Using U.S. Census Data and other open-source information, ConstructConnect says that, nationwide, approximately 5 million undocumented immigrants are working in the country. That figure includes nearly 1.6 million in the construction industry, according to a May 2024 case study published by the University of Michigan’s Civil & Environmental Engineering Department.

The Center for American Progress, a left-leaning public policy research and advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., says construction laborers make up the largest group of undocumented workers, totaling 445,800. 

The second largest subset of undocumented workers is carpenters, with 225,600; painters and paperhangers, with 167,300; and roofers, with 75,600. The figures show that one in five undocumented workers are employed in a construction-related sector, and more than one in 10 construction workers are undocumented – double the rate of workers as a whole.

“As the country looks to the future and charts a course for economic recovery, it is also important to recognize the outsize contributions to the economy provided by construction — particularly residential construction,” the report states. “Dollars spent in residential construction have some of the highest rates of return for U.S. gross domestic product and boost tax revenue.”

In Texas, nearly half of the construction workforce, or 400,000 workers, are undocumented, says a report by the University of Texas and the Workers Defense Project

Researchers say many undocumented workers in Texas don’t show up in statistics because they’re hired through a network of subcontractors who pay them in cash and classify them as independent contractors instead of employees.

The University of Michigan’s case study concluded the usually unspoken truism: subcontractors favor hiring undocumented workers because it saves them money and allows them to produce more competitive bids. It is estimated that U.S.-born construction workers earn an average of $3.12 more per hour than undocumented workers.

The National Immigration Forum reports the construction industry would not be able to function without immigrant labor and undocumented workers.

“Migrant labor is indispensable to the construction industry, but because of narrow options for work authorization, almost a quarter of its workforce is undocumented,” the NIF authors wrote, adding that improving the employment-based visa system is critical to solving the industry’s labor shortage.

“The construction industry’s large share of immigrant labor, particularly undocumented immigrants, is important to acknowledge because of this group’s vulnerability to employment misclassification.”

The NIF notes that domestic construction is an industry that will never satisfy its labor needs solely by relying on U.S. workers, adding it is particularly relevant in light of President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to expel millions of undocumented workers.