There aren't enough framers in the Upper Midwest, and the gap is getting wider, not narrower. That's the blunt version. We take calls every week from GCs in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin who are two or three weeks out from a foundation being ready and just found out their framing sub can't hold the date. If you're planning a start for this fall or next spring, the labor market should already be shaping your schedule.
Why the Crews Aren't There
Nothing mysterious about it. The carpenters who framed the last big multi-family wave are aging out, and the pipeline behind them is thin — fewer young people entering the trades, and many of the ones who do get pulled toward electrical and mechanical work with clearer apprenticeship tracks and indoor winters. Framing is front-loaded pain: it's the most weather-exposed, most physical phase on the job, and any crew that gets genuinely good at it gets recruited hard. Stack that against the volume of work spread across markets like the North Dakota corridor, where projects outnumber local crews, and you get framing subs booked out for months.
What It Actually Does to Your Schedule
Three things, in our experience. First, lead times: good multi-family framing crews are committed a quarter or two out, so the sub you call in week four of sitework may not have an opening until snow flies. Second, pricing: when crews are scarce, framing bids stop competing downward, and the cheapest number on the table is more likely to be a crew that's overcommitted or undermanned. Third, quality drift: shorthanded crews hiring whoever shows up is how nailing patterns, hold-downs, and fire blocking get missed — and a failed framing inspection costs you the week you thought you saved. All of it compounds on multi-family, where framing sits square on the critical path; we walked through that math in our multi-family framing schedule guide.
How to Protect Your Start Date
- Book framing before you break ground, not after. For a multi-family start, a reasonable rule of thumb right now is three to six months of lead time for a proven crew. Framing should be bought when the foundation package is, not when the slab cures.
- Share real plans early. A framing sub who has the structural set in hand can order trusses, flag RFIs, and hold your slot with confidence. A verbal square-footage number holds nothing.
- Prequalify the crew, not just the price. Ask how many buildings like yours they've completed, who the lead on site will be, and what their inspection record looks like. In a tight market, the crew's track record is the schedule.
- Consider turnkey scope. Labor-only framing means your super manages material, hardware, and coordination — fine when labor is plentiful, expensive when it isn't. Turnkey moves that burden onto us.
- Keep your side honest. A crew that shows up to a foundation that isn't ready leaves for another job, and in this market they may not come back for a month.
Travel Crews Change the Math
One structural answer to a regional shortage is crews that move to the work. We run travel crews out of central Minnesota into North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Montana — eight to twelve framers who mobilize, stay, and frame the building straight through instead of splitting weeks between local jobs. For GCs in markets where the local bench is empty, that's often the difference between a fall start and a spring one. How we structure that for general contractors is on our For GCs page.
The shortage isn't going away next season. The GCs who treat framing as a long-lead item — like elevators or switchgear — are the ones hitting their dates.
Have a project that needs a crew locked in? Send us the plans and we'll tell you honestly what our calendar looks like.