Is there still a skilled trades shortage in BC in 2026?
Not in the way there was in 2024. The market shifted. In the ICBA's December 2025 survey of more than 400 BC contractors, the number one concern was securing new projects at 46 percent. Declining margins came second at 42 percent. People shortages dropped to third at 39 percent.
Compare that to the start of 2025, when 72 percent of BC contractors reported severe labour shortages. In under a year, the conversation flipped from "we can't find workers" to "we can't find work."
Jordan Bateman, ICBA's vice-president of communications and advocacy, put it plainly: contractors are now receiving outstanding resumes from laid-off workers — the kind of experienced people who were impossible to land a year earlier. When good tradespeople are on the market, you are no longer in an acute shortage.
Why did the BC labour shortage ease?
Demand cooled faster than supply. The slowdown is the cause, not a sudden flood of new tradespeople.
Housing starts tell part of it. BC starts fell roughly 18 percent year over year, dropping from about 42,200 units to around 34,500. Fewer starts mean fewer crews needed at the same time. Provincial GDP growth sat near 1.1 percent, slow enough to take the pressure off hiring across the board.
Cost pressure did the rest. Steel and aluminum tariffs running at 25 to 30 percent pushed material prices up, while bid prices could not keep pace. Construction input prices rose about 3.6 percent year over year, but bid prices rose only about 2.7 percent. That gap is the margin squeeze contractors are feeling, and it makes every contractor cautious about adding fixed headcount.
So the shortage did not get solved. Projects got scarcer, layoffs followed, and experienced workers came back onto the market. That is a demand correction, and demand corrections reverse.
