Podcast: Addressing the Labor Shortage through Advocacy and Key Collaborations

On the latest episode of NAHB’s podcast, Housing Developments, CEO Jim Tobin and COO Paul Lopez are joined by SkillsUSA Executive Director Chelle Travis to discuss a new collaboration with NAHB’s Professional Women in Building (PWB) Council to bridge the skilled labor gap in construction.

“We are going to be collaborating with all those [PWB] chapters across the country and making sure that our students — our female students — have mentors across the country,” Travis announced. “It's so important for young women to actually be able to see themselves in a job, to believe that they can do it.”

SkillsUSA serves more than 444,000 members nationwide in more than 130 different occupational areas. Students range from middle school to college post-secondary students, and are located in all 50 states and two territories.

“We really do empower students to become career leaders and responsible community members,” Travis added. “We work with students on what we call their framework skills. And so those skills are technical skills, workplace skills and personal skills — those skills that our employer partners say that they need.”

SkillsUSA Championships allow students to showcase these skills, with the national championship kicking off later this month in Atlanta, where more than 7,000 competitors in 114 skilled competitions will compete before an audience of 18,000-plus attendees.

SkillsUSA is also an active advocate for the skilled trades, which is one of the key issues that more than 1,000 NAHB members took to Capitol Hill this week as part of NAHB’s Legislative Conference during the 2025 Spring Leadership Meeting. Members and NAHB staff also held a special meeting at the White House to address workforce development, tariffs and immigration, as well as other meetings with key regulators such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“We had a lot of meetings with key regulators when it comes to our industry,” Tobin shared. “So great work by the advocacy team and regulatory team to put our members in front of the regulators so we can talk about the issues that are important to us.”

Listen to the full episode of the podcast below and subscribe to Housing Developments through your favorite podcast provider, or watch all the episodes on YouTube.