Work-Time Utilization and Staffing Level Impacts in Construction Crews

<jats:p>This report presents the largest field-collected dataset to date on multiskilling as practiced on active U.S. construction projects. Drawing on 40 site visits across 24 states, researchers documented 11,407 work-sampling observations of 644 workers in 60 multiskilled crews. The study examines how observed cross-tasking across trades affects crew-level work-time utilization and equivalent staffing requirements. Workers spent an average of 36% of observed crew time outside their primary trade. Compared with a same-sequence single-skilled analysis, the observed crews recorded a 39% higher direct-work share, 68% lower idle-time share, and a 31% to 42% equivalent staffing reduction. The report also explains why results vary by work context and how owners, contractors, workers, and policymakers can apply the findings without treating multiskilling as a universal replacement for trade specialization.</jats:p>