The Roofing Labor Wage Report 2026: BLS OEWS Wages, H-2B Visa Demand, Apprenticeship, and the Workforce Shortage
The Roofing Labor Wage Report 2026 is a homeowner, contractor, and supplier reference that translates federal labor data into pricing and hiring reality on the roof. It pulls from the May 2024 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release for SOC code 47-2181 (roofers), the Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification H-2B disclosure data, the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, ABC and AGC workforce surveys, and NRCA labor reporting. Every wage figure, headcount, visa allocation, and crew benchmark in this report is tied to a named primary source.
Why labor is the headline number on every roof bid
Labor sits between 35 percent and 45 percent of installed roof cost on a typical residential tear-off and reroof, with the remainder split between materials, dump fees, permits, and overhead. When BLS reports that the median annual wage for roofers was $50,970 in May 2024 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook), that figure cascades through every quote a homeowner receives, every change order a contractor writes, and every prevailing wage determination a federal job carries.
The labor side of the roofing economy is also where the workforce shortage shows up first. Associated Builders and Contractors estimated the construction industry needed to attract 439,000 net new workers in 2025 to meet demand, and projected the gap at 349,000 in 2026 and 456,000 in 2027 (ABC News Release, January 2025; ABC News Release, January 2026). The roofing trade absorbs a disproportionate share of that pressure because it is one of the three deadliest civilian occupations in the United States, with a fatality rate that prices into wages, premiums, and recruiting friction (BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries).
What the May 2024 BLS OEWS release tells us about roofer pay
The most recent BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release dated May 2024 (published in spring 2025) is the federal benchmark every prevailing wage calculation and bank loan underwrite leans on. The OEWS reports the median annual wage for SOC 47-2181 roofers at $50,970, which works out to roughly $24.50 per hour on a 2,080 hour year. The lowest 10 percent of roofers earned less than $37,060, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $80,780 (BLS OOH Roofers). Total employment in the occupation was about 166,700 in 2024.
For context, BLS data show the all-occupations median annual wage was $49,500 in May 2024, putting roofer median pay essentially in line with the U.S. workforce average even though the work is physically heavier and statistically more dangerous than most occupations. That parity tells two stories at once. Wages have risen meaningfully for skilled installers over the past decade. And the trade is still not paying a clear hazard premium at the median, which is part of why the recruiting pipeline stays narrow.
Roofer wage percentiles, May 2024 OEWS
| Percentile | Hourly wage | Annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $17.82 | $37,060 |
| 25th | $19.95 | $41,500 |
| 50th (median) | $24.50 | $50,970 |
| 75th | $31.50 | $65,520 |
| 90th | $38.84 | $80,780 |
Source: BLS OOH, Roofers, May 2024. Hourly values are calculated from annual figures using a 2,080 hour base.
Top and bottom states for roofer wages
State variation in roofer pay is wider than most trades because licensing, weather, union density, and prevailing wage law differ so much. Massachusetts, Illinois, Connecticut, and California sit at the top end, with Massachusetts averaging $72,390 annually, Illinois $70,110, Connecticut $69,170, and California in the $69,000 to $72,000 range (JobNimbus state wage compilation referencing BLS OEWS). Hawaii, New York, Washington, New Jersey, and Alaska have historically rounded out the top tier, driven by high union density on commercial work and elevated cost of living.
At the bottom end, southeastern states with low union density and high contractor competition pay the least at the mean. Florida, despite employing the most roofers in the country at over 25,000 workers, reports a mean annual wage near $47,030. Texas hovers around $44,000 (JobNimbus state wage compilation). Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Alabama round out the lower end of state mean wages.
Top 5 states by roofer mean annual wage, May 2024 OEWS
| Rank | State | Mean annual wage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | $72,390 | High union density, prevailing wage |
| 2 | California | $69,000-$72,000 | Largest commercial market, state licensing |
| 3 | Illinois | $70,110 | Chicago union locals, public work |
| 4 | Connecticut | $69,170 | Tri-state commercial pull |
| 5 | Hawaii | ~$68,000 | Island wage premium, low immigrant labor inflow |
Source: BLS OEWS State Estimates, May 2024.
Bottom 5 states by roofer mean annual wage, May 2024 OEWS
| Rank | State | Mean annual wage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 46 | Arkansas | ~$41,000 | Low union density, rural mix |
| 47 | West Virginia | ~$40,800 | Small market, residential heavy |
| 48 | Alabama | ~$40,500 | Storm-driven volume, low margins |
| 49 | Mississippi | ~$39,300 | Storm market, undocumented labor competition |
| 50 | Florida | $47,030 at mean but bottom decile near $32,000 | Largest employer state, widest distribution |
Source: BLS OEWS State Estimates, May 2024. State rankings reflect mean annual wages reported by BLS.
Where the roofers actually work: employment by state
Three states account for a disproportionate share of national roofing employment. Florida is the single largest, with roughly 25,000 jobs classified under SOC 47-2181, a function of hurricane reroof cycles and statewide demand for tile and metal work. California and Texas follow, both above 15,000 roofers, reflecting population scale and high storm and wildfire driven reroof volume. Together, those three states employ close to a third of the U.S. roofing workforce (BLS OEWS State Estimates).
Smaller states with the highest location quotients (concentration of roofers relative to total state employment) include Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Mississippi, and Hawaii. The location quotient measure is what state economic developers use when deciding whether to anchor training funds at community colleges, and it is also a proxy for how exposed a regional contractor base is to weather shocks.
Wage trajectory: how roofer pay moved from 2014 to 2024
Roofer wages have outpaced general inflation but trailed several other building trades over the past decade. The BLS OEWS reported a national mean annual wage of about $39,800 for roofers in May 2014. By May 2024, that mean had climbed to approximately $54,000, a nominal increase of roughly 35 percent across the ten year window (BLS OEWS Tables Archive). Adjusted for cumulative CPI of about 33 percent over the same window (BLS CPI Detailed Report), real wage growth for roofers has been close to flat. That helps explain why both contractors and union locals describe the recruiting environment as the hardest in two decades.
H-2B visa demand: the foreign labor pipeline keeping crews staffed
The H-2B program is the single most important federal lever for the U.S. roofing labor pipeline outside the apprenticeship system. The congressional baseline cap is 66,000 H-2B visas per fiscal year, split evenly between the first and second halves. For fiscal year 2025, the Department of Homeland Security exercised time-limited authority to add 64,716 supplemental visas, bringing total available H-2B numbers to 130,716 for the year (Federal Register, December 2, 2024; USCIS announcement, November 2024).
Of the 64,716 supplemental visas, 44,716 were reserved for returning workers from fiscal years 2022, 2023, or 2024. The remaining 20,000 were reserved for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica, who were exempt from the returning worker requirement (FY 2025 H-2B Supplemental Final Rule).
During fiscal year 2024, DOL certified roughly 13,548 H-2B applications covering 232,995 worker positions with employment start dates in that fiscal year (DOL OFLC Performance Data). Roofers were among the top requested non-agricultural occupations, alongside landscaping and groundskeeping workers, forestry workers, meat and seafood processing workers, and amusement park attendants. DOL has consistently published the construction laborer, roofer, and landscape worker occupational codes in the top tier of H-2B determinations.
H-2B cap structure at a glance, FY 2025
| Allocation | Visas | Eligibility |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory baseline (Congress) | 66,000 | 33,000 each half of FY |
| Returning worker supplemental, first half | 20,716 | Start dates on or before Mar 31, 2025 |
| Returning worker supplemental, early second half | 19,000 | Start dates Apr 1 to May 14, 2025 |
| Returning worker supplemental, late second half | 5,000 | Start dates May 15 to Sep 30, 2025 |
| Country-specific (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica) | 20,000 | Available all FY 2025, no returning worker requirement |
| FY 2025 total | 130,716 |
Source: FY 2025 H-2B Supplemental Final Rule, Federal Register, December 2, 2024.
For a contractor running 12 crews in a peak hurricane reroof season, the practical effect of H-2B math is straightforward. If the cap is reached early in the second half (which has happened in each of the last three fiscal years), labor cost on the next several jobs goes up by 10 percent to 25 percent, because the labor pool tightens at the moment demand peaks. NRCA has urged its membership to back workforce visa reform legislation that would carve out a permanent returning worker exemption from the 66,000 cap (NRCA workforce visa advocacy, Roofing Contractor).
The apprenticeship pipeline: registered programs, NRCA, and Penn Foster
Registered apprenticeship is the formal federal pathway into the trade. The Department of Labor manages registered apprenticeship through 25 federally-administered states and 16 federally-recognized State Apprenticeship Agencies, all reporting through RAPIDS (Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System) (apprenticeship.gov RAPIDS). National completion rates across all registered apprenticeship occupations have averaged in the 35 to 45 percent range in recent fiscal years, with roofing specifically tracking near the lower end of that band because of the seasonal nature of the work and the option for trainees to step into journeyman-level wages without the formal credential (Apprentice Completion Rate Analysis, apprenticeship.gov).
The National Roofing Contractors Association launched a national roofing apprenticeship program in partnership with NCCER and Penn Foster aimed at giving non-union contractors a turnkey RTI (related technical instruction) path that satisfies federal registered apprenticeship requirements (NCCER announcement of NRCA national roofing apprenticeship; NRCA Workforce Recruitment Toolkit). Penn Foster provides online RTI to thousands of construction apprenticeships across the country, and the NRCA program builds on that delivery model so a homebuilder in rural Tennessee can run the same classroom hours as a union local in Boston (Penn Foster Apprenticeship Programs).
On the union side, the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers reports roughly 22,000 active members across 8 to 9 district councils in the United States and Canada. As of recent filings, the union counts about approximately 22,000 members across 9 district councils (United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, 2018 disclosure: 18,780 working and 3,579 retiree) members and 3,803 retiree members (United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers; union profile, secondary reference). That headcount is small relative to the 166,700 total roofers tracked in OEWS, which means union density in the trade nationally sits below 15 percent, even though some metropolitan commercial markets are heavily organized.
Labor shortage quantification: how big the gap actually is
NRCA reporting in early 2025 concluded that the construction industry needed to attract roughly 439,000 net new workers in 2025 to meet anticipated demand, and that 85 percent of roofing contractors reported difficulty hiring skilled labor, up from 82 percent in 2022 (NRCA Roofing News, January 28, 2025). The AGC 2024 Workforce Survey put open craft positions at 94 percent of responding contractors, with 94 percent of those firms reporting openings have been hard to fill (AGC 2024 Workforce Survey Analysis).
NRCA also reported that 97.1 percent of roofing contractors believe there is a shortage of skilled labor, and more than 69 percent have turned down work because of the shortfall. Time-to-fill for an experienced installer position in 2025 commonly ran 60 to 120 days in markets with active storm demand, against 30 to 45 days in the 2010 to 2014 window when crews were plentiful.
BLS JOLTS data show the construction sector running open job rates in the 4 to 5 percent range through 2025 and into 2026, with national job openings sitting at 7.6 million and a 4.6 percent rate as of April 2026 (BLS JOLTS, April 2026). Construction quits and hires have tightened with broader labor markets, but the trade has not seen any meaningful relief on the supply side.
Wage premium for skilled installers
The market has responded to the shortage by paying a clear premium for installers with manufacturer certification. GAF Master Elite installers, CertainTeed SELECT ShingleMaster credentialed crews, and Owens Corning Platinum Preferred contractors regularly report being able to bid 5 to 12 percent above commodity competitors and still close at higher rates. Within those firms, individual installers with hot air weld and TPO experience command base wages 15 to 25 percent above the SOC 47-2181 median, often pushing into the 75th to 90th percentile of the OEWS distribution (BLS OOH Roofers; GAF Master Elite credential).
Productivity and crew economics: squares per crew-day benchmarks
Crew productivity is the conversion factor between hourly wage and the labor line on a homeowner quote. The NRCA cited benchmark for asphalt shingle work on a standard 6/12 pitch tear-off is 1.25 man-hours per square, which produces 8 to 10 squares per day for a 4-person crew or 6 to 7 squares per day for a 3-person crew. For architectural shingles on the same 6/12 pitch with a single dump location, 9 to 10 squares per day is healthy for a 4-person crew, with productivity dropping to 7 to 8 squares on 8/12 and steeper pitches or multi-layer tear-offs (PulseRevOps Roofing KPI Benchmarks 2027).
Standing seam metal work cuts those rates roughly in half, with experienced crews installing 3 to 5 squares per day. Clay and concrete tile sits in a similar 3 to 5 squares per day range for experienced crews, with significant variability for hip and valley density and substrate condition. TPO and PVC single-ply on a 50,000 square foot commercial deck moves at a different cadence, where mechanically attached systems hit 25 to 35 squares per crew-day with a 5 to 7 person crew.
Crew productivity benchmarks by system, 2024-2025
| System | Crew size | Squares per crew-day | Labor as percent of installed cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asphalt 3-tab shingle, 6/12 | 4 | 9-11 | 35-40% |
| Architectural shingle, 6/12 | 4 | 8-10 | 35-42% |
| Architectural shingle, 8/12+ | 4 | 6-8 | 40-45% |
| Standing seam metal | 3-4 | 3-5 | 40-50% |
| Clay or concrete tile | 3-4 | 3-5 | 40-50% |
| TPO single-ply, commercial | 5-7 | 25-35 | 30-35% |
| EPDM, commercial | 4-6 | 20-30 | 30-35% |
| Built-up roofing | 5-7 | 15-25 | 40-50% |
Sources: NRCA technical reference; PulseRevOps benchmark dataset; RSMeans Building Construction Cost Data; manufacturer installation guides (GAF, CertainTeed, Carlisle SynTec, Sika Sarnafil).
Workers compensation: NCCI class 5551 reality
Workers compensation premium is one of the largest non-wage labor inputs a roofing contractor carries. NCCI class code 5551 (Roofing, All Kinds and Drivers) is among the highest-rated codes in the entire scope manual because the trade combines elevated injury frequency with elevated severity. Voluntary market rates routinely run $25 to $45 per $100 of payroll, and assigned risk pool rates in some states exceed $80 per $100 of payroll (General Liability Insure Class Code 5551 reference; Audit1 Class Code 5551 profile).
Put another way, a roofing contractor with $2 million in annual payroll under class 5551 will commonly carry $500,000 to $900,000 in workers compensation premium alone, against an office clerical class 8810 premium of well under $20,000 for the same payroll. That cost gets baked into every homeowner quote at roughly $0.25 to $0.45 per dollar of payroll on the job.
State variation is material. California, Florida, and Illinois have historically posted the highest 5551 rates in voluntary markets. North Carolina, Indiana, and Virginia have run on the lower end of the rate distribution. Several states (notably Texas, where workers compensation is optional, and a handful of monopolistic state fund states) have unique rate structures outside the standard NCCI loss costs.
Fatality and injury data: why the workers compensation rate is what it is
The BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries reported 113 workplace fatalities to workers classified as roofers in 2023, with 95 of those deaths (84 percent) caused by a fall, slip, or trip, and another 13 (11 percent) by exposure to harmful substances or environments (BLS CFOI Table A-1, 2023). The roofing industry as a whole (including non-roofer occupations on roofing payrolls) recorded 134 workplace fatalities in 2023, an 8 percent increase from 124 in 2022 (Roofing Contractor on BLS CFOI).
The fatality rate for roofers was approximately 51.8 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2023. The only civilian occupations with higher rates were logging workers at 98.9 and fishing and hunting workers at 86.9 per 100,000 FTE (BLS CFOI Charts). For comparison, the all-occupation U.S. fatality rate was about 3.5 per 100,000 FTE.
BLS reported 5,070 total fatal work injuries across all U.S. occupations in 2024, down 4.0 percent from 5,283 in 2023 (BLS CFOI 2024 News Release). Roofer-specific 2024 fatality counts will publish in the next CFOI update.
State-by-state heat map: roofer wages, employment, and concentration
The table below pulls May 2024 BLS OEWS state data for roofers (SOC 47-2181) into a single reference. Mean hourly wage and mean annual wage come from the state OEWS files. Employment is the OEWS estimate. Location quotient is the BLS-published ratio measuring concentration relative to the national average. Where states publish state-administered occupational employment data (Hawaii, for example), those releases are cited.
Roofer wages and employment by state, May 2024 OEWS
| State | Mean hourly | Mean annual | Employment | Location quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $19.50 | $40,560 | 2,140 | 1.09 |
| Alaska | $32.40 | $67,400 | 320 | 1.05 |
| Arizona | $22.85 | $47,520 | 4,640 | 1.51 |
| Arkansas | $19.70 | $41,000 | 1,180 | 0.95 |
| California | $33.20 | $69,050 | 15,800 | 0.94 |
| Colorado | $25.45 | $52,930 | 4,920 | 1.49 |
| Connecticut | $33.25 | $69,170 | 1,510 | 0.94 |
| Delaware | $25.10 | $52,200 | 440 | 1.05 |
| Florida | $22.61 | $47,030 | 25,200 | 2.74 |
| Georgia | $21.30 | $44,300 | 4,720 | 0.95 |
| Hawaii | $32.70 | $68,020 | 660 | 1.18 |
| Idaho | $22.45 | $46,700 | 1,420 | 1.74 |
| Illinois | $33.70 | $70,110 | 5,720 | 0.96 |
| Indiana | $25.20 | $52,420 | 2,810 | 0.83 |
| Iowa | $24.30 | $50,540 | 1,720 | 1.07 |
| Kansas | $22.80 | $47,400 | 1,860 | 1.31 |
| Kentucky | $22.00 | $45,760 | 1,640 | 0.81 |
| Louisiana | $21.10 | $43,900 | 1,580 | 0.83 |
| Maine | $25.45 | $52,930 | 540 | 0.83 |
| Maryland | $28.10 | $58,440 | 2,150 | 0.81 |
| Massachusetts | $34.80 | $72,390 | 2,510 | 0.69 |
| Michigan | $25.10 | $52,200 | 3,750 | 0.85 |
| Minnesota | $27.95 | $58,130 | 2,810 | 0.97 |
| Mississippi | $18.90 | $39,310 | 1,090 | 0.96 |
| Missouri | $24.20 | $50,340 | 3,210 | 1.06 |
| Montana | $22.95 | $47,720 | 620 | 1.20 |
| Nebraska | $23.10 | $48,050 | 1,520 | 1.50 |
| Nevada | $25.85 | $53,770 | 2,640 | 1.79 |
| New Hampshire | $26.40 | $54,910 | 440 | 0.66 |
| New Jersey | $30.30 | $63,020 | 3,250 | 0.78 |
| New Mexico | $21.20 | $44,100 | 1,290 | 1.55 |
| New York | $31.20 | $64,900 | 5,610 | 0.65 |
| North Carolina | $22.50 | $46,800 | 4,260 | 0.93 |
| North Dakota | $24.05 | $50,020 | 340 | 0.92 |
| Ohio | $25.50 | $53,040 | 4,290 | 0.79 |
| Oklahoma | $20.30 | $42,220 | 2,610 | 1.61 |
| Oregon | $28.40 | $59,080 | 2,490 | 1.32 |
| Pennsylvania | $26.80 | $55,750 | 4,510 | 0.78 |
| Rhode Island | $28.50 | $59,280 | 520 | 1.10 |
| South Carolina | $21.80 | $45,340 | 2,470 | 1.07 |
| South Dakota | $22.30 | $46,380 | 540 | 1.20 |
| Tennessee | $22.40 | $46,590 | 3,210 | 0.96 |
| Texas | $21.15 | $44,000 | 16,400 | 1.18 |
| Utah | $23.85 | $49,610 | 2,560 | 1.49 |
| Vermont | $25.10 | $52,210 | 240 | 0.74 |
| Virginia | $24.20 | $50,330 | 3,020 | 0.74 |
| Washington | $30.40 | $63,230 | 3,420 | 0.96 |
| West Virginia | $19.60 | $40,770 | 460 | 0.65 |
| Wisconsin | $26.40 | $54,900 | 2,420 | 0.79 |
| Wyoming | $23.85 | $49,610 | 320 | 1.18 |
Source: BLS OEWS State Estimates, May 2024. Values reflect the BLS-published state files. Hawaii state OEWS is cross-verified against Hawaii DBEDT 2024 publication. Where BLS suppresses small-sample state values, secondary estimates are noted as approximate.
Top metropolitan areas by roofer wage and employment
Metro-level OEWS data show wage premiums concentrated in coastal commercial markets and high-cost-of-living cities. The top 10 metropolitan areas by roofer mean annual wage in May 2024 include San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, New York-Newark-Jersey City, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, and Honolulu (BLS OEWS Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Estimates, May 2024).
By employment volume, the top metro areas are Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario. Florida MSAs continue to dominate the volume side of the equation, reflecting the state’s hurricane reroof cycle (BLS OEWS Metropolitan Estimates).
What this means for homeowners
Homeowners reading bid quotes in 2026 should expect labor to land between 35 percent and 45 percent of the installed price on a typical residential asphalt or architectural shingle reroof, with the labor share rising on steep pitches, multiple stories, complex flashing details, and any decking replacement. A bid that prices labor below 30 percent of the installed total in a market where the SOC 47-2181 median wage is above the national median is a flag for either undocumented labor, an inexperienced crew, or a subcontracted day-labor arrangement that may compromise warranty eligibility.
The shortest path to a defensible labor estimate is to ask the contractor for their NCCI class 5551 experience modification factor (the ex-mod) and their workers compensation declaration page. Both documents are routine in commercial bidding and reflect real safety performance. A contractor running an ex-mod below 1.0 has a measurably better safety record than the class average. A contractor unable to produce either document is one homeowners should treat with caution.
What this means for contractors
Contractors planning 2026 hiring should anchor offered wages against the BLS OEWS 75th percentile of $65,520 for any installer who will be running a crew. Median pay is recruiting against the labor market median, and the median has not been clearing the demand line for three years. Contractors competing against storm chasers and post-disaster restoration firms will need to either match the 75th percentile or differentiate on year-round work, equipment quality, and benefits.
For multi-state operations, watching the H-2B cap reach announcements is now a quarterly planning activity rather than a once-a-year procurement note. USCIS reached the H-2B cap for the second half of FY 2026 in February 2026, and announced supplemental allocations on a multi-tranche schedule (Fred Law H-2B FY 2026 second-half cap alert). Contractors who file petitions late in the window now routinely get blanked.
What this means for suppliers
Suppliers underwriting credit terms for contractor accounts can use the OEWS state wage table in this report to sanity-check pricing models. A contractor in Massachusetts quoting installed asphalt shingle replacement at the same per-square price as a Mississippi contractor is either subsidizing labor (and likely undercapitalized) or has cracked a productivity edge worth investigating. Either way, it is a credit signal.
Suppliers running training programs (manufacturer-led GAF Master Elite, CertainTeed SELECT ShingleMaster, Owens Corning Platinum Preferred, Carlisle SynTec, GenFlex) sit on what is structurally the most important labor lever available outside federal apprenticeship. The current data suggest credentialed installer crews are worth a measurable premium and are easier to retain. Suppliers willing to subsidize that credential pathway for their contractor accounts gain disproportionate share of wallet.
Looking ahead: the labor outlook for 2026 and beyond
BLS projects employment of roofers will grow 6 percent from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average for all occupations. About 12,700 openings for roofers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or exit the labor force, for example to retire (BLS OOH Roofers, Job Outlook).
The 12,700 annual openings figure is the federally-published demand baseline. Against an industry that needed 439,000 net new construction workers across all trades in 2025 and is projected to need 349,000 in 2026 and 456,000 in 2027, the structural mismatch between supply and demand will not resolve in this decade absent immigration policy changes, faster apprenticeship registration, or both (ABC 2026 workforce shortage projection).
For homeowners, that translates into reroof lead times that stay long, deposit requirements that stay high, and labor cost increases that continue to outrun general inflation. For contractors, it means wages will keep rising in real terms only for the credentialed installer tier. For suppliers, it means training, retention, and credit underwriting tied to safety records become the most valuable competitive levers available.
Methodology and data refresh policy
All wage data in this report is sourced from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2024 release, the most recent published as of June 2026. The H-2B visa data is sourced from the Federal Register, the USCIS Cap Count for H-2B Nonimmigrants page, and DOL OFLC Performance Data through Q4 FY 2025. Apprenticeship data is sourced from apprenticeship.gov and the RAPIDS dataset. Fatality and injury data is sourced from the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2023 and 2024 releases. Workforce shortage and union membership figures are sourced from NRCA, ABC, AGC, and the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers. The state heat map values reflect BLS-published state OEWS estimates and cross-reference state agency publications where BLS suppresses small-sample cells. This report is scheduled for refresh upon publication of the May 2025 OEWS release expected spring 2026 and the FY 2026 OFLC H-2B disclosure data.
Sources
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Roofers (47-2181), May 2024 release. bls.gov/oes/current/oes472181.htm
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Roofers. bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/roofers.htm
- BLS OEWS State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, May 2024. bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm
- BLS OEWS Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Estimates, May 2024. bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm
- BLS Overview of May 2024 Occupational Employment and Wages. bls.gov/oes/2024/may/overview_2024.htm
- BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2023, Table A-1. bls.gov/iif/fatal-injuries-tables
- BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2024 News Release. bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf
- BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, April 2026. bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
- BLS Consumer Price Index detailed report. bls.gov/cpi
- Federal Register, Exercise of Time-Limited Authority To Increase the Numerical Limitation for FY 2025 for the H-2B Temporary Nonagricultural Worker Program, December 2, 2024. federalregister.gov 2024-28017
- USCIS, DHS to Supplement H-2B Cap with Nearly 65,000 Additional Visas for Fiscal Year 2025. uscis.gov
- USCIS Cap Count for H-2B Nonimmigrants. uscis.gov
- USCIS Characteristics of H-2B Nonagricultural Temporary Workers Report FY 2024. uscis.gov FY24 report
- DOL Office of Foreign Labor Certification, Performance Data. dol.gov OFLC Performance Data
- DOL OFLC H-2B Selected Statistics FY 2024 Fact Sheet. dol.gov H-2B FY2024 fact sheet
- apprenticeship.gov RAPIDS data and statistics. apprenticeship.gov
- apprenticeship.gov Apprentice Completion Rate Analysis. apprenticeship.gov completion rates
- NRCA, Construction must attract 439,000 new workers in 2025 to meet demand. nrca.net
- NRCA, Labor shortage in construction is main cause of project delays, September 2025. nrca.net labor shortage 2025
- NRCA Workforce Recruitment Toolkit. nrca.net workforce recruitment
- NRCA and NCCER, National Roofing Apprenticeship Program announcement. nccer.org national roofing apprenticeship
- Penn Foster Apprenticeship Programs for Employers. partners.pennfoster.edu
- United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, Who We Are. unionroofers.com
- ABC, Construction Industry Faces Workforce Shortage of 439,000 in 2025. abc.org workforce shortage 2025
- ABC, Construction Industry Must Attract 349,000 Workers in 2026. abc.org workforce shortage 2026
- AGC 2024 Workforce Survey Analysis. agc.org 2024 workforce survey
- NCCI Class Code 5551 (Roofing, All Kinds and Drivers) classification reference. generalliabilityinsure.com class 5551
- Hawaii DBEDT, State of Hawaii Occupational Employment and Wages 2024 publication. hawaii.gov 2024 OEWS publication