Predicting A Future Construction Slowdown In America

The Impact of The Surveyor Shortage In The Coming Decades

By:  Maxwell R. Carter, PE, CFM

July 23, 2026

Construction is about to come to a halt across the United States in the next decade if our state licensure boards for surveying do not make immediate changes to PLS licensure paths for licensed professional engineers in civil engineering. Three years ago, the average age of a licensed surveyor was reported to be 57. That means they are over 60+ now. The average age of a new licensed surveyor is around 40. It is not a profession that attracts young people. There is about to be a massive wave of retirement of licensed land surveyors, and it is time for civil engineers to absorb the responsibility of surveying because civil engineering work and construction projects will experience multi-billion/trillion dollar delays in a decade when civil engineers are not getting surveys in a timely manner.

It’s time for the politicians to fix this because the licensure boards have just continued to put up barriers for engineers and uneducated survey staff to get licensed. My client that is a homeowner, is looking to address flooding issues on his property while replacing a collapsed driveway culvert is reaching out to his 5th surveying firm since his culvert failed before Memorial Day. No one will send him a proposal by the time they tell him they will send it by if they even respond. The first one I contacted said unless it’s a 100-acre subdivision you need platted we are too busy to help you. My client and his family have been parking on the street while they wait for it to be fixed.

Right now, it is homeowners who are having trouble getting surveyors to do work on their small residential projects. As all these older surveyors retire in the next few years, I anticipate that many government agencies will be next to experience significant delays in starting design of their civil engineering projects. Civil engineers are going to have less projects to do because of the limited capacity of the surveying profession. This is going to wreak havoc on contractors in the coming decade because less civil engineering projects means there will be less construction projects. There is going to be a major slowdown in the number of construction projects going on because the boards have made surveyors an endangered species in our industry.

2008 level construction slowdown is on the horizon in the next ten years if civil engineers do not absorb the responsibilities of surveyors within the next few years. HELP!!!!