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Topics are published as research questions before any guest, episode, carriage, or distribution claim is made.
Independent workforce researchwilinstitute.org
Workforce Intelligence Lab
WIL studies how workforce conditions influence the delivery of infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, and other mission-critical investment. Its standing is built through documented methods, empirical work, external challenge, and responsible publication.
New in the Library
The most recent publications from the current research workflow. Updated as scheduled releases publish.
WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-ST-PA
Research Brief
Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Pennsylvania
What construction managers, cost estimators, construction supervisors, and civil engineers earn across Pennsylvania — BLS OEWS percentiles benchmarked against national levels, with QCEW construction-industry wage context.
High
WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-ST-NC
Research Brief
Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: North Carolina
What construction managers, cost estimators, construction supervisors, and civil engineers earn across North Carolina — BLS OEWS percentiles benchmarked against national levels, with QCEW construction-industry wage context.
High
WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-ST-NY
Research Brief
Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: New York
What construction managers, cost estimators, construction supervisors, and civil engineers earn across New York — BLS OEWS percentiles benchmarked against national levels, with QCEW construction-industry wage context.
High
What the evidence is showing
Observed government statistics from the Library's public evidence layer — the same governed data package, not a separate calculation.
Markets moving · BLS QCEW
Where construction employment is growing — and contractingQ1 2026 preliminary
Private NAICS 23 March employment change, Q1 2025 → Q1 2026 · five largest observed increases and decreases among the 34 comparable jurisdictions
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) — Private ownership, NAICS 23 Construction, March employment. Q1 2026 preliminary. · Measure: Construction employment change, March Q1 2025 → March Q1 2026 (jobs) · Period: Q1 2025 (revised) → Q1 2026 (preliminary) · Movement rankings include only the 34 jurisdictions marked comparable for Q1 2025 → Q1 2026; 17 jurisdictions are excluded for suppression/missingness or comparability limitations. Construction employment change — not workforce pressure, shortage, availability, or hiring difficulty.
The compensation evidence
From the WIL Compensation Profiles series — observed public-source wage distributions for released geographies. New profiles publish on a scheduled cadence.
WIL Compensation Profiles · BLS OEWS
What construction management pays across California metrosMay 2025 OEWS
Construction Managers (SOC 11-9021) — annual wage band (10th–90th percentile) with the median marked, for the eight metros with released compensation profiles
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 — via the Lab's governed public-source warehouse. · Measure: Annual wage distribution — 10th percentile, median, 90th percentile · Period: May 2025 reference period · Estimates BLS does not publish for an area are omitted — missing values are never shown as zero. Observed wage distributions — not a market-rate recommendation and not a workforce-availability, shortage, or hiring-difficulty measure.
Current projects
Founding research projects are shown as work in development, not completed findings.
Project · TAX-001Open for contribution
Research questionHow should America’s skilled workforce be consistently classified across occupations, specialties, skills, credentials, industries, and labor-market data systems?
Develop a shared, versioned vocabulary for skilled-workforce research so roles, trades, credentials, and capability requirements can be compared across sources without implying false equivalence.
Expertise needed: Occupational classification, Skilled trades, Taxonomy engineering, NLP methods, Workforce researchProject · MAP-001Open for contribution
Research questionWhere are major infrastructure investments likely to place overlapping demands on the same skilled workforce?
Develop a governed geographic research view connecting data-center, power-generation, and transmission/grid project evidence with comparable workforce measures while keeping lifecycle, coverage, timing, and uncertainty visible.
Expertise needed: GIS, Labor economics, Infrastructure research, Energy and power, Data engineeringThe Lab
A public research-broadcast initiative built around difficult workforce questions—not a promotional content series.
Researchers and practitioners in the same inquiry
Evidence, field experience, disagreement, and open questions remain visible rather than being compressed into promotional conclusions.
Designed to travel without losing context
Live, on-demand, audio, library, media, and event pathways are being prepared. No carriage or partnership is represented as confirmed.
Research network
Participation is substantive and selective. Individual participation never implies an institutional partnership or authority over WIL findings.
Research Fellows
Researchers contributing to defined design, analysis, authorship, or review roles.
Industry Fellows
Practitioners contributing nonfiduciary context and domain challenge.
Technical Fellows
Methodology, data, and research-system contributors.
Contributors & Partners
Named contributors and substantiated research relationships, each disclosed accurately.
Data & evidence
The governed research infrastructure behind measurement, monitoring, and publication.
Core research question. How do workforce conditions influence the ability of infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, and mission-critical investments to be delivered as planned?
Evidence Monitor
A monitoring surface for appropriately governed evidence streams. It is infrastructure—not a fourth flagship contributor project.
Methodologies
Versioned specifications, assumptions, validation evidence, limits, and change history.
Data & Open Research
Disclosed source families, lineage, coverage boundaries, permitted use, and limitations.
Research participation
Participate
WIL is built with a research network. Applications are substantive and reviewed; submission does not imply acceptance, affiliation, or endorsement.