More of the country’s biggest specialty contractors say they can’t find enough craft workers, and the shortage is worst in the trades the hottest markets need. In ENR’s 2026 Top 600 Specialty Contractors survey, published Oct. 21, 62.6% of firms reported craft shortages, up from 57.4% a year earlier.
The split by trade is the story. About three-quarters of electrical contractors reported shortages. Utility contractors came in at 73.1% and mechanical firms at 63.9%.
Where the specialty contractor labor shortage bites
Those are the same trades riding the biggest revenue gains. ENR says power revenue on the list rose 33.8% and industrial process work rose 43.7%. Telecommunications climbed 65%, its second straight year of double-digit growth. Manufacturing fell 16.7% and hazardous waste dropped 37.8%.
Put together, the firms with the most new work are the ones least able to staff it. Data center campuses, substations and transmission lines all lean on electricians and linemen, and those can’t be pulled off a residential framing crew in a slow month.
Lee Gros, president and CEO of Penhall Co., put the change plainly: “The challenge has evolved from simply finding workers to developing people who can perform increasingly technical work.” Lee Mason, president of All 5’s Construction, told ENR his firm needs “to build our workforce and leadership team faster.”
Specialty contractor revenue is still growing, for fewer firms
The top line looks healthy. Total revenue on the list rose 14.7% to $275.1 billion last year, and it has grown by double digits every year since 2020. New contract awards rose 6.4% to $230.8 billion from $217.0 billion, and median firm revenue rose 6.5% to $136.4 million.
The breadth is thinning, though. Among firms that filed in both years, 65.6% reported higher revenue. That share was 73.1% in 2023. In the bottom quarter of the list it’s 43.8%, so fewer than half of the smaller firms grew.
There’s a risk point buried in the quotes too. J.D. Oldham, chairman of Great Basin Industrial, said customers are “pushing more scope and more risk onto the specialty contractor.” A sub that’s short on crews and carrying more risk is a sub that prices both into the next bid. Larger names on the list include Rosendin Electric at No. 7, Everus Construction Group at No. 10 and Lithko Contracting at No. 25.
What the Top 600 shortage numbers mean for bids
The ENR figures are self-reported by firms that filed surveys, not a payroll count, so treat them as a read on contractor sentiment. They line up with what other surveys are finding. Homebuilders told NAHB this month that labor shortages are wider than in the 2004-06 boom, and 98% of large contractors in Bridgit’s survey say crew availability now shapes their bids.
For owners, the useful number is the electrical one. If three in four electrical subs say they’re short now, the trade package to lock in early on a 2027 data center or plant job isn’t steel or concrete. It’s the electrical scope, and the crews that come with it.