Potential for High Wage – High Demand Career Sectors
Construction
Occupations in
California
January 2008
VTEA Industrial and Technical Collaborative CCCCO Grant #07-0162
Background
In January 2002, the VTEA Industrial and Technical Statewide Collaborative began to focus on
identifying and supporting Best Practice Models in California Community College vocational and
technical education programs. Project outcomes have included faculty and staff workshops and
trainings, student and industry surveys, posting of hundreds of vocational and technical
education Best Practice Models on the www.vteabp.org web site, collaboration with a wide
variety of industry and academic partners, and analysis of potential job growth in Engineering
and Related Industrial Technologies occupational areas.
This study supports the Collaborative’s efforts by identifying Construction high wage – high
demand career opportunities that are projected to grow through the year 2014 in the State of
California. This publication is available online at www.vteabp.org.
The study was produced under California Community College Chancellor’s Office grant #07-
0162. Chancellor’s Office Project Monitor: Barry Noonan; Project Manager: Arthur Curry;
Researcher/Analyst: Carol Pepper-Kittredge.
High Wage – High Skill
Construction Occupations in California
In 2005, more than 74,000 California construction firms and establishments employed
more than 900,000 employees, with an annual payroll that exceeded $39.8 billion. (1) (2)
These businesses included the following sub-specialty jobs:
Specialty trade contractors – 66.5% of all jobs
Construction of buildings – 23.3% of all jobs
Heavy and civil engineering construction – 10.2% of all jobs
From a regional perspective, the Greater Sacramento Region had the highest concentration of
construction jobs (1.4 LQ compared to 1.1 LQ statewide), while the Southern California Region
had the greatest t