Construction Laborer Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
A construction laborer does the physical work that keeps every other trade moving — material, demolition, concrete, clean-up, traffic control and whatever the day needs. This page has a construction laborer job description template you can copy, what belongs in the requirements, what the job pays, and why "general laborer" and "construction laborer" usually mean the same posting.
What a construction laborer does
BLS describes the work plainly: using, supplying or holding materials and tools, cleaning work areas and equipment, operating power tools, building temporary structures and assisting the specialized trades. On a real site that is a day made of material handling, demolition, concrete pours and finishing support, backfill and compaction, saw and jackhammer work, traffic control, and keeping the site clean enough to be safe.
It is also the entry point to the industry. Roughly 137,000 openings a year with no formal credential required and short-term on-the-job training makes this the single widest door into construction, and that shapes how the posting should read. Most people who apply are not comparing your job to another laborer job — they are comparing it to a warehouse shift or a restaurant job that pays about the same and is indoors. The posting has to answer that comparison, not just describe the duties.
The honest version of that answer is usually progression: a laborer who shows up and learns is an equipment operator, a concrete finisher or a foreman in three to five years, on a wage curve the warehouse does not have. If that is true where you work, it belongs in the first two lines of the ad.
Construction laborer job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board and replace the bracketed fields. It is written for a general site crew; the customization notes cover concrete, demolition, roadwork and utility work.
Job title
Construction Laborer — [Company name], [City, ST] — [Full-time / Seasonal]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring construction laborers for [residential / commercial / road and site] work in [service area]. You will work on a crew of [size] doing [material handling, demolition, concrete support and site clean-up], [days], [start time] to [end time]. Pay is [$00.00–$00.00] per hour depending on experience, paid [weekly], with overtime after 40 hours. No experience required — we will train you.
Responsibilities
- Load, unload, carry and stage material where the crew needs it
- Assist the trades: hold, supply, measure and clean up behind them
- Break out and remove concrete, masonry and debris; load out and haul off
- Set and strip forms, place and spread concrete, and help finish as directed
- Dig, backfill, grade and compact by hand and with small equipment
- Operate power tools and small equipment — saws, jackhammers, compactors, mixers
- Set up and maintain traffic control and site protection as required
- Keep the site clean, clear and safe throughout the shift, not just at the end
- Follow all safety rules, wear required PPE and use fall protection where needed
Requirements
- Able to lift [50–75] lbs repeatedly and work on your feet for the full shift
- Able to work outside in heat, cold and wet weather
- Reliable transportation to the job site and a phone we can reach you on
- Able to start at [time] and work overtime and occasional [Saturdays] when the schedule calls for it
- Able to pass a background check and [pre-employment drug screen]
- [Valid driver’s license]
- [OSHA 10 card, or willingness to complete one within 30 days — we pay for it]
Preferred
- Previous construction, landscaping, warehouse, agricultural or military experience
- Experience with [concrete, demolition, framing, underground]
- [Skid steer, mini excavator or forklift experience]
- [Spanish and English]
Pay and benefits
- [$00.00–$00.00] per hour, paid [weekly]
- Overtime after 40 hours at time and a half
- [Health, dental and vision after 60 days]
- [Paid holidays and PTO]
- [401(k) with company match]
- [Boot allowance and company-supplied PPE]
- [Paid OSHA 10 and equipment training — a path to operator or finisher]
How to apply
[Apply here / text WORK to 00000 / call [name] at [number]]. We answer every application within [24] hours and can usually have you on a crew within a week.
Requirements: what is required, what is preferred, and what kills applications
This is the job where an over-specified requirements list does the most damage, because the pool is people choosing between industries rather than between contractors.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Prior construction experience | Keep it in the preferred list. BLS lists short-term on-the-job training and no formal credential as typical, so a hard experience requirement contradicts the job and removes the candidates who are leaving warehouse work for a trade. |
| Physical requirements | Worth being concrete and honest: lifting weight, full-shift standing, outdoor weather. Candidates respect the specificity and it prevents day-one drop-off. |
| Transportation | State whether the crew meets at the shop or at the job. A shop meet-up or a van run is a genuine advantage in this labor pool and almost nobody advertises it. |
| Driver’s license | Required only if they will drive company vehicles. Requiring it otherwise cuts a meaningful share of applicants for no reason. |
| OSHA 10 | Offer to pay for it within the first 30 days. As a hard requirement it filters out everyone new to the industry — the exact people this job exists to bring in. |
| Background check and drug screen | Name them in the posting. On general-labor roles, an undisclosed screen after acceptance is the most common cause of a no-show start. |
| English fluency | Say what the job actually needs — usually the ability to understand safety instruction on site. A blanket fluency requirement is both a legal risk and a recruiting one in most construction markets. |
General laborer job description: the same job under a different title
"General laborer", "laborer" and "construction laborer" are, on almost every site, one job with three titles. The federal occupation is "construction laborers and helpers", and the duty list above covers all three. The difference is where the posting is read: "general laborer" is the title people search when they are open to construction, landscaping, manufacturing or warehouse work and are sorting by pay and start date. "Construction laborer" is searched by people who have decided on the industry.
That makes the title a targeting decision rather than a cosmetic one. If you need bodies on a crew next week and will train, post as General Laborer and name construction in the summary — you reach the wider pool and lose nothing. If you want people who already know a job site, post as Construction Laborer and the self-selection does some of the screening for you.
One title that is not the same job: helper. A helper is assigned to a specific trade — an electrician’s helper, a plumber’s helper — and is on that trade’s learning path. BLS reports a lower median for helpers ($43,260) than for construction laborers ($47,120). If the role is genuinely a trade apprenticeship in everything but name, say so: it is a better offer than "laborer" and it should not be hidden under the general title.
How to customize it for your work
Concrete
Say the start time honestly. Concrete crews start early and the pour decides the day, and a candidate who learns about a 5:00 am call on their first Monday does not come back on Tuesday. Name whether the laborer is setting and stripping forms, placing and spreading, or supporting finishers, and say whether you will train toward finishing — that is the progression this crowd most wants.
Demolition
Name the PPE and the environment: dust, noise, respirators, confined space, and whether there is any abatement work involved (if so, it is a licensed role and not this posting). Demolition attracts people who like hard physical work and it is worth saying that the job is exactly that.
Road, highway and site work
Lead with the shift, because night work and lane closures are the defining feature. Say whether flagger certification is required or provided, and name the travel radius — highway crews move, and a job forty-five minutes away four days a week is a different job.
Residential and remodel
Smaller crews, more variety, more customer contact. Say that the laborer will be in occupied homes if they will be, because that changes the behavior and background expectations, and mention the tool and truck arrangements.
Utility and underground
Trench work has its own safety regime and it is a legitimate selling point that you run it properly — competent person on site, protective systems, daily inspection. Say whether the crew works to locate tickets and what the on-call or storm-response expectation is.
What it costs to reach laborers on social
General labor sits in the warehouse and production role family in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark: a median cost per applicant of $9.83 across 82 campaigns, a middle half of $3.15 to $18.72, a volume-blended figure of $4.44, a 20% apply rate and a 1.67% click-through rate. The wide spread is the point — the same job costs three dollars an applicant for some employers and eighteen for others, on the same platform in the same month.
What separates them is mostly the apply rate. Campaigns converting over 20% of clicks paid $4.41 an applicant; campaigns under 10% paid $53.77. For a general-labor posting the three things that move that number are a visible pay range, a short application form, and a start date the candidate can picture. None of them costs media budget.
If the problem is filling crews rather than writing the posting, our guides on how to recruit construction workers and the construction labor shortage cover the pipeline side.
Writing the ad version
The template above is the ATS document. The ad is shorter and answers four questions in the first three lines: what the pay is, where the work is, when it starts, and whether experience is needed. For general labor, "no experience required, we will train you" is the highest-performing single line you can write, and it is true of the occupation as BLS defines it.
Keep the application to three or four questions and make one of them "when can you start". Laborer candidates are frequently available immediately and that answer is what lets you call the right person first. Every additional field costs completions, and postings past roughly 700 words lose apply rate outright.
What construction laborers earn
The median for construction laborers and helpers together was $22.44 an hour, $46,680 a year in May 2025. Construction laborers on their own were higher at $47,120, helpers lower at $43,260. The lowest tenth earned under $34,820 and the top tenth more than $76,400 — and the top of that range is where the progression argument lives, because it is largely operators, foremen and specialty crews who started as laborers.
Employment is projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average across all occupations, with about 137,000 openings a year. Unlike most frontline trades, this one is genuinely growing rather than only replacing — which means the competition for the same applicants is growing too.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main duties of a construction laborer?
Loading, carrying and staging material; assisting the trades; breaking out and removing concrete and debris; setting and stripping forms and helping place concrete; digging, backfilling and compacting; operating power tools and small equipment; setting up traffic control; and keeping the site clean and safe throughout the shift.
What is the difference between a general laborer and a construction laborer?
On most sites, nothing — they are the same job, and the federal occupation covers both. The difference is who reads the posting: "general laborer" reaches people open to construction, warehouse, landscaping or manufacturing work, while "construction laborer" reaches people who have already chosen the industry. Pick the title by which pool you need.
What qualifications does a construction laborer need?
Usually none formally. BLS lists no formal educational credential as typical and short-term on-the-job training as the norm. Employers generally need the ability to lift 50 to 75 lbs, work outdoors in all weather, get to the site reliably, and pass a background check and drug screen. OSHA 10 is best offered rather than required.
How much do construction laborers make?
The median for construction laborers and helpers was $22.44 an hour, or $46,680 a year, in May 2025. Construction laborers specifically had a median of $47,120 and helpers $43,260. The lowest tenth earned under $34,820 and the highest tenth more than $76,400.
What is the difference between a laborer and a helper?
A helper is assigned to a specific trade and is on that trade’s learning path — an electrician’s helper or a plumber’s helper. A laborer supports the whole site. Helpers have a lower federal median ($43,260 against $47,120), but a helper role that genuinely leads into a trade is a stronger offer and should be advertised as such.
Do you need experience to be a construction laborer?
No. It is the widest entry point into construction: no credential, short-term training and roughly 137,000 openings a year. "No experience required, we will train you" is both accurate and the highest-performing line in most general-labor job ads.
What should a construction laborer job description include?
The type of work and site, the crew size and schedule with the real start time, a pay range, the physical requirements stated concretely, what training and PPE you provide, whether the work is seasonal, any background check or drug screen, the progression path to operator or a trade, and a simple way to apply.
Other job description templates
Hiring laborers?
General labor is the widest door into construction and the fastest crew to fill when the posting answers the four questions candidates actually have. We run the advertising that puts it in front of them.
Pay, employment and outlook figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Construction Laborers and Helpers (May 2025 wage data, 2025–35 projections). Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.