For New Jersey taxpayers, the question surrounding major public construction projects is straightforward: How can the public entities build schools, infrastructure, roads and facilities faster, more efficiently and with greater certainty that the projects stay on budget?

A new study commissioned by the Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative (ELEC 825) suggests that Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) can be an important part of the answer. This comes as a new state law signed earlier this year expands access to optional project labor agreements for NJ municipalities, counties and school districts.

A Project Labor Agreement is a pre‑hire contract for a construction job that sets wages, benefits, work rules, training standards, and no‑strike conditions for all contractors. It aims to stabilize labor, reduce delays, and ensure consistent jobsite practices.

The 2026 white paper, Project Labor Agreements in New Jersey: Skilled Labor, Apprenticeship Investment, and Evidence on Construction Costs, was authored by Peter Philips, a professor of economics at the University of Utah whose research specializes in the construction industry, and Kevin Conner, a labor economist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah. The study examines New Jersey’s construction workforce, apprenticeship investment and the evidence surrounding the cost and performance of projects built under PLAs.

The report’s central conclusion debunks long-standing and misinformed criticisms of Project Labor Agreements and concludes that PLAs do not make public construction more expensive.

In fact, the researchers found that the evidence used to claim PLAs are more expensive – particularly a 2010 New Jersey Labor Commissioner study – has significant methodological limitations that lead to a false narrative. When those limitations are addressed, the apparent cost difference between PLA and non-PLA projects becomes substantially smaller and, among the most comparable projects, disappears.

The real cost of construction isn’t just the bid

Construction costs are more than the number written on the winning bid.

A project that is delayed for weeks or months can impose substantial additional costs on taxpayers, owners and the communities waiting for the facility to open. Delays can result in extended project-management costs, inflation, financing expenses, change orders and lost use of the completed facility.

New Jersey’s non-union construction industry is facing a significant skilled-worker shortage.

According to the white paper, 73% of New Jersey contractors surveyed in 2025 reported severe difficulty finding qualified workers, and it took an average of 71 days to fill an open position. However there was a measurable difference between contractors signed with union apprenticeship programs and those that were not: on average there was a 25% difference and in some cases the shortage differences neared 40%. (⁠ELEC 825)

PLAs provide access to a larger skilled workforce

A Project Labor Agreement establishes the terms and conditions under which construction work will be performed before a project begins.

Among other provisions, PLAs provide access to union hiring halls, establish standardized work rules and dispute-resolution procedures, and generally include no-strike and no-work-stoppage provisions.

Importantly, the study notes that PLAs do not necessarily exclude non-union contractors. Non-union contractors can bid on PLA projects and can bring key employees with them while also accessing additional skilled workers through union hiring halls when necessary.

For a public owner, that creates a potentially valuable combination: competition among contractors coupled with access to a broader pool of trained workers.

The researchers describe this as providing public projects with access to skilled labor from both the union and non-union segments of the construction industry. (⁠ELEC 825)

The workforce investment matters

One of the study’s most significant findings concerns apprenticeship training. New Jersey has 24 registered construction apprenticeship programs representing approximately $135 million in training-facility assets. According to the study, 21 union programs account for approximately 82% of the value of those facilities and the overwhelming majority of reported apprenticeship expenditures. (⁠ELEC 825)

The researchers argue that this investment matters because construction is a project-based industry. Individual contractors may have limited incentive to make large investments in training when a worker can leave for another contractor once a project ends.

Union apprenticeship programs address that problem by spreading training costs across participating contractors through collectively bargained contributions.

The result is an industry-wide workforce investment rather than an investment that falls entirely on an individual contractor.

That distinction becomes particularly important as New Jersey prepares for an enormous wave of infrastructure, energy, transportation and building construction.

Training today can mean fewer delays tomorrow

The white paper points to a connection between workforce development and project efficiency.

Skilled workers are particularly important on a project’s critical path – the sequence of tasks that determines when a project can ultimately be completed. When a critical trade is short of workers, the delay can cascade into other portions of the project.

An inexperienced worker can also create additional problems through slower production, rework or construction defects.

Conversely, a reliable supply of trained workers allows contractors to maintain workflow, coordinate crews and keep critical-path activities moving.

This is where the researchers argue that the value of a PLA should not be judged solely by comparing the initial construction bids.

A project that costs slightly more – or no more – to bid but is completed sooner and with fewer disruptions ultimately represents the better value for taxpayers.

Rethinking the 2010 cost argument

For years, critics of PLAs in New Jersey have pointed to a 2010 study by the state’s Labor Commissioner that found PLA school construction projects appeared to cost approximately 19% more per square foot.

A fresh look at this study by researchers has concluded that the 2010 study does not provide reliable evidence that PLAs inherently increase New Jersey public construction costs. There were several major methodological problems identified, including the way square footage was incorporated into the statistical model and the difficulty of adequately accounting for rapidly changing construction costs during the period studied.

Most significantly, the timing of PLA and non-PLA projects was different. Non-PLA projects in the data were concentrated earlier in the period, while PLA projects were disproportionately completed later—when construction costs were rising significantly.

In other words, the original analysis risked attributing some of the increased cost associated with when a project was built to whether the project used a PLA.

After modifying the analysis to better account for changes in construction costs over time, the researchers found a substantially smaller association between PLAs and project costs. In a model limited to elementary schools and controlling more fully for timing and project characteristics, the estimated PLA cost effect became statistically insignificant. (⁠ELEC 825)

Efficiency is the bigger opportunity

The most important takeaway may be that the PLA debate should move beyond the question of whether a PLA changes the initial bid price.

The better question is: What delivers the best overall value to the taxpayer?

The broader research reviewed in the white paper finds that PLA projects tend to be completed faster than comparable non-PLA projects and that PLAs do not reduce the number of bidders on projects.

That matters at a time when New Jersey is confronting labor shortages while simultaneously facing enormous infrastructure needs.

From transportation and water infrastructure to schools, energy facilities and public buildings, New Jersey will need thousands of skilled workers to turn public investment into completed projects.

The state’s ability to build will ultimately depend not just on how much money is appropriated, but on whether there are enough trained workers available to perform the work.

A tool for managing construction risk

The new study does not suggest that every project requires a PLA or that a PLA automatically lowers every project’s construction price.

Rather, it makes a more fundamental point: the evidence does not support treating PLAs as inherently more expensive, while there are compelling workforce and project-management benefits associated with them.

The researchers describe PLAs as a practical tool for public entities seeking to manage the risks associated with skilled-worker shortages.

By providing access to trained workers, establishing standardized project procedures and reducing the risk of labor disruptions, PLAs can give public owners greater certainty that projects will move forward as planned.

And in public construction, certainty has value. A school that opens on time. A bridge that returns to service sooner. A transportation project that avoids unnecessary delays. A public facility that can begin serving its community as scheduled. Those outcomes have an economic value that may never appear in a contractor’s initial bid.

Building New Jersey’s future workforce

The study makes clear that the construction industry cannot simply wait for skilled workers to appear when major projects are announced. Training must occur years in advance.

Today’s apprentice becomes tomorrow’s journey-level worker, foreman, superintendent and trainer.

The union apprenticeship system represents one of the industry’s mechanisms for making that long-term investment. In New Jersey, union contractors and workers have invested heavily in training facilities and apprenticeship programs across the skilled trades. The white paper documents that investment in detail. (⁠ELEC 825)

For public officials considering how to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure, that workforce investment should be part of the conversation.

The bottom line

New Jersey faces a choice. The state can continue debating whether PLAs should be viewed through the narrow lens of initial construction costs – or it can evaluate public construction based on the broader goals that taxpayers actually care about: cost, schedule, quality, safety, workforce availability and reliable project delivery.

The new ELEC 825 study provides evidence that Project Labor Agreements can contribute to those goals. For New Jersey, that could make PLAs less about labor policy and more about good project management.

When the objective is to build more infrastructure, more efficiently and with greater certainty, ensuring access to a skilled workforce may be one of the most important investments a public owner can make.

Watch an interview with Kevin Conner here:

Read the full study: Project Labor Agreements in New Jersey: Skilled Labor, Apprenticeship Investment, and Evidence on Construction Costs, by Peter Philips and Kevin Conner, commissioned by ELEC 825. (⁠ELEC 825)