CAGC’s Dave Simpson Shares Outlook on 2026

GroundBreak Carolinas is pleased to share thoughts and insights from key leaders in the construction industry from North Carolina and South Carolina. Dave Simpson, President & CEO of Carolinas AGC (CAGC), shares his thoughts as we enter 2026.

What is your outlook on the construction industry for 2026?

Positive and solid – if the Fed continues reducing interest rates and we can continue to make more inroads in the workers’ shortage and attract talented people to promising and rewarding careers in commercial construction. It should be noted that the ICE raids in late 2025 in NC resulted in hundreds of employees not coming to jobsites and serious concerns still exist about how this development will shake out in coming months at a time when the workers’ shortage was already severe.  

What are you most excited about?

There is a lot of work out there, especially in the public sector and hopefully private work will accelerate as the interest rates continue to come down, so the future looks positive in the Carolinas for highway-heavy, building and utility construction. The Carolinas are a terrific place to live, work and play – and we are blessed and somewhat insulated from much of the rest of the country.

What concerns you the most about the upcoming year?

The workforce shortage continues to be the top challenge. There is a lot of public money in North and South Carolina, and a lot of construction jobs on the horizon. Still, for the highway-heavy industry in North Carolina, with all the infrastructure repair work continuing in Western NC post Hurricane Helene, we need to continue our efforts at trying to get more funding for both those hard-hit areas as well as funding for the rest of the state. Our population in the Carolinas is booming – and we are just not keeping up with infrastructure needs. Traffic congestion continues to grow disproportionally throughout the Carolinas as we are not keeping pace with highway and bridge needs, our schools and other public buildings are need of repairs and expansion, and our utility needs for better water and sewer infrastructure are spiraling.