A Pilot Investigation of Construction Workforce and Education Inequalities and Biases in Construction/Civil/Architectural Engineering

建筑业是美国最大的就业提供者之一，在创造高薪、中产阶级和高质量的工作岗位方面发挥着重要作用。因此，许多有色人种在建筑劳动力中的代表性不足。根据美国人口普查局(2014)的最新数据，建筑行业的男性员工平均比女性员工多16%，白人员工平均比黑人或非裔美国人多24%。建筑劳动力面临的挑战很多，解决方案也很复杂。增加工程领域的种族和性别多样性是国家科学基金会的当务之急，也是不断变化的人口结构和对包括建筑业在内的高素质工程劳动力的需求所推动的优先事项。使用多种数据收集方法，调查人员建议获得研究建筑/土木工程/建筑工程中的不平等和偏见的初始数据。更具体地说，调查人员的目标是通过调查高中生对AEC行业的看法/兴趣/形象/理解，利用全国性的数据来源以及国家教育系统内与AEC相关的结构性不平等和偏见，研究目前建筑劳动力按种族/民族和性别划分的不平等状况，以及美国大都市/行业之间工资差距的空间分布。特别是，这项研究将侧重于非裔美国人、西班牙裔美国人和女性。这项研究的时机是最佳的，因为它在解决迫在眉睫的劳动力短缺问题方面有着巨大的前景，同时帮助建筑业招聘更多元化的劳动力。

The construction industry is one of the largest job providers in the U.S. and plays a major role in producing well-paying, middle class, high-quality jobs. Thus, many communities of color are underrepresented in the construction labor force. According to a recent dataset from the U.S. Census Bureau (2014), male workers in the construction sector, on average, comprise 16% more than their female counterparts, and white workers, on average, comprise almost 24% more than their black or African American counterparts. The challenges in the construction workforce are many, and the solutions are complex. Increasing racial and gender diversity in engineering is an imperative for the National Science Foundation and a priority driven by the changing demographics and need for high-quality engineering workforce, including in the construction industry. Using multiple data collection methods, the investigators propose to obtain initial data studying inequalities and biases in construction/civil/architectural engineering. More specifically, the investigators aim to study the current inequality situation within the construction workforce by race/ethnicity and gender, along with the spatial distribution of wage gaps among U.S. metros/trades by utilizing nationwide data sources and structural inequalities and biases within the national educational system as they relate to AEC by surveying high school students about their perceptions/ interests/ images/understanding on the AEC industry. In particular, this study will focus on African American, Hispanic, and women. The timing of this study is optimal because it possesses great promise in addressing an imminent labor shortage issue while helping the construction industry recruit a more diversified labor workforce.