Construction Labor Shortage, DBE Suspension, and Heat Safety: What Hispanic Contractors Must Do Before July 2026
259,000 construction jobs sit open. Federal DBE solicitation volume has dropped more than 90 percent for many certified Hispanic contractors since October 2025. OSHA heat enforcement is now active and unannounced. Three urgent actions for Hispanic-owned construction firms in June 2026.
By George Carrillo, CEO, Hispanic Construction Council | June 10, 2026
Hispanic-owned construction firms face three compounding pressures in June 2026: a construction labor shortage of 259,000 open jobs as of April 2026, a federal DBE program suspension that has cut solicitation volume for many certified firms by more than 90 percent since October 2025, and active OSHA heat enforcement under a National Emphasis Program that specifically targets construction, road work, and roofing. Firms that complete individual DBE reevaluation, document craft crew capacity, and implement bilingual heat safety plans are positioned to compete through all three. Firms that wait are at risk of being frozen out of goal-eligible contracts, passed over on bids, and cited on summer jobsites.
How Bad Is the Construction Labor Shortage in 2026, and What Does It Mean for Hispanic Contractors?
Construction posted 259,000 open jobs at the end of April 2026, the highest level so far this year, up 10.6 percent from March and 25 percent from April 2025. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation for May 2026 shows construction employment rose by 17,000 that month. Total U.S. payroll employment added 172,000 jobs and the unemployment rate held at 4.3 percent. Those headline numbers suggest a stable market. The April JOLTS data underneath them tells a different story: the gap is not a future risk. It already exists on active projects.
HCC's 2026 State of Hispanic Construction source set puts the scale in context: 4.3 million Hispanic construction workers represent 35.2 percent of the U.S. construction workforce. Hispanic workers are not a segment of the labor market. They are the construction labor market. When general contractors, developers, and public agencies talk about a workforce shortage, they are describing a supply constraint concentrated in communities where Hispanic workers live and work.
The search opportunity for Hispanic-owned firms is not generic job posting. It is retention, bilingual safety training, apprenticeship access, and documented contractor capacity. A project that cannot retain Hispanic workers at the craft level does not finish on schedule. A general contractor that has no Hispanic-owned subcontractor relationships is already behind on the workforce chain that closes this gap.
Open positions are concentrating in electrical, concrete, HVAC, and earthwork. Hispanic-owned firms with trained crews in those specialty trades are in a strong bid position if they can document capacity, carry adequate insurance, and survive material cost pressure long enough to be awarded.
Sources: BLS Employment Situation, May 2026 (June 5, 2026); BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, April 2026 (June 3, 2026); Construction Dive, "April construction job openings hit highest mark of 2026" (June 3, 2026); ABC, 2026 Workforce Shortage Analysis (January 15, 2026); HCC, 2026 State of Hispanic Construction.
What Does the Federal DBE Suspension Mean for Hispanic Contractor Access to Procurement in 2026?
In October 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an Interim Final Rule that suspended the group-based presumption of disadvantage for all six covered groups, including Hispanic Americans, across every federal DBE and Airport Concession DBE program in the country. Every one of approximately 53,500 certified firms must now complete an individual reevaluation before any DBE contract goal can be set or counted. States have no mandated national deadline for completing those reevaluations.
The practical result is documented in HCC's national study, Shut Out: Federal DBE Program Suspension and Its Impact on Hispanic Contractors (June 2026): Hispanic contractors report solicitation volume dropping from more than 30 bids per week to one or two since October 2025. That is not a slowdown. It is near-elimination from the goal-eligible procurement market for firms that have not yet completed individual reevaluation.
Caltrans has publicly confirmed what many agencies are applying nationally: DBE goals cannot be set and DBE participation cannot be counted toward goals until reevaluation is complete. Prime contractors writing project bids face real uncertainty about whether DBE subcontractor participation will count. In that environment, some primes are declining to set goals at all.
What did not go away: prompt payment obligations, good-cause termination protections, and contract administration duties that apply to certified DBE firms remain in force. A firm that completes individual reevaluation is immediately eligible. A firm certified before October 2025 retains that certification while completing the process.
Hispanic contractors should take four immediate steps:
- —File for individual reevaluation immediately if you have not. Each week of delay is a week of goal-eligible solicitations you cannot compete on.
- —Document your qualifying evidence. Agencies need proof of disadvantage, ownership, and control. Gather two to three years of tax returns, ownership documentation, and a clear record of controlling-owner decisions.
- —Ask prime contractors directly whether DBE goals are being set on specific bids. The information asymmetry is real. Firms that ask get better answers than firms that wait.
- —Track USDOT BUILD grant selections, expected in late June 2026. BUILD-funded projects include highway, transit, port, and multimodal work. Local agencies awarding those projects will have varying DBE postures. Early visibility is the difference between being on the bid list and being excluded before solicitation opens.
Sources: HCC, "Shut Out: Federal DBE Program Suspension and Its Impact on Hispanic Contractors" (June 2026); U.S. DOT Interim Final Rule, October 2025; Caltrans DBE program update (accessed June 9, 2026); ACEC monitoring page on U.S. DOT DBE changes (last updated April 28, 2026).
How Should Hispanic Contractors Prepare for OSHA Heat Enforcement Before Summer 2026?
OSHA's National Emphasis Program for Heat (Directive CPL 03-00-024, effective April 10, 2026) makes heat enforcement active, unannounced, and enforceable. The directive specifically names construction, road work, and roofing among its targeted industries. OSHA compliance officers can inspect any named worksite on any day the National Weather Service issues a heat advisory, with no advance notice and no warning period.
An enforcement visit triggered by a heat illness on a small contractor's jobsite is not a paperwork problem. It is a potential work-stoppage, citation, and penalty risk that arrives without warning in the middle of a season.
Hispanic workers are overrepresented in outdoor construction trades with the highest heat exposure. The framing that matters here is not just regulatory: heat safety is a workforce retention and worker dignity issue. Workers who are not protected from heat leave. Projects that lose trained craft workers in July and August do not recover that labor in the same construction season.
OSHA's guidance covers fluids, shorter shifts, frequent breaks, acclimatization schedules, and supervisor training. The bilingual requirement is the most operationally important piece for Hispanic-majority crews. A heat safety plan the crew cannot read is not a heat safety plan. A supervisor who cannot communicate acclimatization requirements in Spanish cannot implement them on the ground where it counts.
Before the peak heat window, every contractor with crews in the field should audit bilingual heat safety materials, update the site safety plan to document acclimatization schedules, conduct supervisor-level training with specific reference to OSHA CPL 03-00-024, and keep documentation of that training in the project file where an inspector can review it.
Sources: OSHA, National Emphasis Program for Heat, Directive CPL 03-00-024 (April 10, 2026); OSHA, Working in Outdoor and Indoor Heat Environments (accessed June 9, 2026); Construction Dive, "OSHA extends heat emphasis program" (April 16, 2026).
What Should Hispanic Contractors Do Right Now? Three Actions Before July
Three active conditions intersect in the same construction season: labor availability, procurement access, and heat enforcement. Hispanic-owned firms are not bystanders in any of them. They are the workforce backbone the industry needs, the certified firms whose procurement access has been disrupted by federal rule, and the employer class with the most at stake from an OSHA enforcement visit.
None of these require waiting for a federal policy resolution.
Firms that document specialty crew capacity and communicate it to prime contractors are positioned to close labor gap contracts. Firms that complete DBE individual reevaluation today are eligible for goal-counting the day their reevaluation is approved. Firms that produce bilingual heat safety plans and conduct supervisor training before the first heat advisory are positioned to pass an unannounced OSHA inspection on any day this summer.
HCC will continue tracking DBE reevaluation timelines, JOLTS construction data, BUILD award selections, and OSHA enforcement activity through the summer. Members who want timely intelligence should stay connected to the HCC member brief.
For the full data set on the federal DBE suspension and its impact on Hispanic contractors, see: HCC "Shut Out" National Study #2.
For workforce data and contractor capacity benchmarks, see: HCC 2026 State of Hispanic Construction.
Sources and citations are listed inline at the end of each section. HCC research source basis: 2026 State of Hispanic Construction source set; HCC National Study #2, "Shut Out: Federal DBE Program Suspension and Its Impact on Hispanic Contractors" (June 2026). External sources are linked as accessed on or before June 10, 2026.
George Carrillo is the CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, a Marine veteran, and a former Director of Social Determinants of Health.
George Carrillo
CEO, Hispanic Construction Council
George Carrillo is the founder and CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, the leading research and advocacy organization for Hispanic workers and businesses in the U.S. construction industry. He has spent his career at the intersection of construction, data, and policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many construction jobs are currently open in the U.S.?
Construction posted 259,000 open jobs at the end of April 2026, the highest level so far this year, up 10.6 percent from March and 25 percent from April 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).
What is the federal DBE program suspension and how does it affect Hispanic contractors?
In October 2025, the U.S. DOT issued an Interim Final Rule suspending the group-based presumption of disadvantage for all six covered DBE groups. All approximately 53,500 certified firms must complete individual reevaluation before any DBE goal can be set or counted on new federal contracts. Hispanic contractors have reported solicitation volume dropping from more than 30 bids per week to one or two since the rule took effect.
What is DBE individual reevaluation and how do I file?
Individual reevaluation is the process by which each formerly certified DBE firm must now individually prove disadvantage, ownership, and control without the group-based presumption. Contact your state Unified Certification Program. Gather two to three years of tax returns, ownership documentation, and a clear record of controlling-owner decisions before filing.
What is OSHA CPL 03-00-024 and what does it mean for construction contractors?
CPL 03-00-024 is OSHA's National Emphasis Program for Heat, effective April 10, 2026. It directs compliance officers to conduct priority inspections on worksites in named industries including construction, road work, and roofing. Inspectors can arrive without advance notice whenever the National Weather Service issues a heat advisory.
What bilingual heat safety requirements apply to construction crews?
OSHA requires employers to address recognized hazards under the General Duty Clause. A heat safety plan the crew cannot read in their primary language does not meet that standard. For Hispanic-majority crews, Spanish-language training and bilingual supervisor oversight are a baseline readiness requirement. OSHA provides free bilingual heat safety resources at osha.gov/heat-exposure.
What are the three actions Hispanic contractors should take before July 2026?
First, file for DBE individual reevaluation immediately if not already done. Second, document specialty crew capacity and communicate it to prime contractors. Third, produce bilingual heat safety plans, conduct supervisor training, and keep documentation of that training in the project file before any unannounced OSHA inspection.
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