B.C. Residential Construction Jobs to Fall 13% by 2035 as 46,700 Workers Retire
Updated
Updated · Business Examiner · Aug 7
B.C. Residential Construction Jobs to Fall 13% by 2035 as 46,700 Workers Retire
1 articles · Updated · Business Examiner · Aug 7
Summary
BuildForce projects British Columbia’s residential construction employment will drop 13% from 2025 to 2035, with losses concentrated in new-home building rather than renovation and maintenance.
Non-residential employment is expected to rise 5%, driven by institutional, commercial and industrial work, with investment peaking in 2027 before easing after 2030.
46,700 construction workers are forecast to retire between 2026 and 2035, outpacing roughly 40,800 local entrants under 30 and leaving an estimated 7,400-worker shortfall.
Regional gaps are wide: the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island each face 15% residential declines, while Thompson-Okanagan shows the shallowest drop at 11% and the only non-residential gain, up 6%.
371,100 expected immigrants, 5,000 new trades training seats backed by C$241 million, and faster modular building methods are emerging as key tools to ease the province’s tightening labor market.
As 46,700 builders retire, could the desperate pivot to modular construction and immigrant labor fail to save BC's billion-dollar infrastructure pipeline?
With BC's residential building collapsing, will the massive shift to hospital mega-projects leave the province's housing crisis completely unsolvable by 2035?