On average, for every 100 men who work at a construction site, you’ll find three women (or, according to this study, just one). With an aging workforce and fewer younger workers taking retirees’ places, 69 percent of contractors struggle to fill hourly craft positions. And around a third of contractors have a hard time hiring high-skilled salaried employees for field sites and administrative work.

Keeping these statistics in mind, it’s safe to say that the construction industry has traditionally not had an easy time recruiting and retaining workers that are women, young people, and white-collar professionals. But, new technologies that are proliferating in the construction and engineering industries have the power to change that.

Between 2013 and early 2018, construction technology firms pulled in more than $18 billion in investment funding. The technologies in question run the gamut from virtual reality to robotics to Internet-enabled equipment. Advances in these areas make a disproportionately large difference to women, young people, and white-collar workers for a number of reasons.

Companies looking to target these populations more effectively should pay attention to these shifts, and prioritize technology in their operational and hiring plans.

Tech encourages women’s participation
Women currently comprise 9.9% of workers in the construction industry and only 3.4% of field workers. That share is expected to grow to as much as 25% of the industry by 2020.

This will come as little surprise to anyone with a passing familiarity with the industry’s culture. Women tend to feel intimidated by or unwelcome in the male-dominated field, and they often assume that construction jobs require physical strength.

Source - Read More at: quickbooks.intuit.com