How to become a Construction Laborer 2024

Construction Laborer Perform tasks involving physical labor at construction sites. May operate hand and power tools of all types: air hammers, earth tampers, cement mixers, small mechanical hoists, surveying and measuring equipment, and a variety of other equipment and instruments. May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, set braces to support the sides of excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble, debris, and other waste materials. May assist other craft workers.

Construction Laborer is Also Know as

In different settings, Construction Laborer is titled as

Bituminous Asphalt Technician
Construction Laborer
Construction Worker
Drop Crew Laborer
Equipment Operator (EO)
Form Setter
Post Framer
Scaffolding Operator
Site Work Laborer
Toolman

Education and Training of Construction Laborer

Construction Laborer is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Construction Laborer

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Construction Laborer

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Construction Laborer

Training Required for Construction Laborer

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Construction Laborer in different industries are

What Do Construction Laborer do?

Clean or prepare construction sites to eliminate possible hazards.
Read plans, instructions, or specifications to determine work activities.
Control traffic passing near, in, or around work zones.
Signal equipment operators to facilitate alignment, movement, or adjustment of machinery, equipment, or materials.
Dig ditches or trenches, backfill excavations, or compact and level earth to grade specifications, using picks, shovels, pneumatic tampers, or rakes.
Position, join, align, or seal structural components, such as concrete wall sections or pipes.
Measure, mark, or record openings or distances to layout areas where construction work will be performed.
Load, unload, or identify building materials, machinery, or tools, distributing them to the appropriate locations, according to project plans or specifications.
Erect or dismantle scaffolding, shoring, braces, traffic barricades, ramps, or other temporary structures.
Position or dismantle forms for pouring concrete, using saws, hammers, nails, or bolts.
Lubricate, clean, or repair machinery, equipment, or tools.
Operate jackhammers or drills to break up concrete or pavement.
Smooth or finish freshly poured cement or concrete, using floats, trowels, screeds, or powered cement finishing tools.
Operate or maintain air monitoring or other sampling devices in confined or hazardous environments.
Install sewer, water, or storm drain pipes, using pipe-laying machinery or laser guidance equipment.
Provide assistance to craft workers, such as carpenters, plasterers, or masons.
Tend pumps, compressors, or generators to provide power for tools, machinery, or equipment or to heat or move materials, such as asphalt.
Mop, brush, or spread paints, cleaning solutions, or other compounds over surfaces to clean them or to provide protection.
Place, consolidate, or protect case-in-place concrete or masonry structures.
Identify, pack, or transport hazardous or radioactive materials.
Use computers or other input devices to control robotic pipe cutters or cleaners.
Mix, pour, or spread concrete, using portable cement mixers.
Grind, scrape, sand, or polish surfaces, such as concrete, marble, terrazzo, or wood flooring, using abrasive tools or machines.
Tend machines that pump concrete, grout, cement, sand, plaster, or stucco through spray guns for application to ceilings or walls.
Mix ingredients to create compounds for covering or cleaning surfaces.
Raze buildings or salvage useful materials.
Spray materials, such as water, sand, steam, vinyl, paint, or stucco, through hoses to clean, coat, or seal surfaces.
Apply caulking compounds by hand or caulking guns to protect against entry of water or air.
Apply weather-stripping to reduce energy loss.
Perform building weatherization tasks, such as repairing windows, adding insulation, or applying weather-stripping materials.
Perform construction laborer duties at green building sites, such as renewable energy plants or wind turbine installations.
Perform site activities required of green certified construction practices, such as implementing waste management procedures, identifying materials for reuse, or installing erosion or sedimentation control mechanisms.

Qualities of Good Construction Laborer

Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.

Tools Used by Construction Laborer

Adjustable widemouth pliers
Adjustable wrenches
Air compressors
Air drills
Air monitoring equipment
Asphalt kettles
Asphalt mops
Asphalt saws
Axes
Bale hooks
Bandsaws
Belt conveyors
Bench grinders
Bosun chairs
Brick carrier forks
Brick hammers
Brick tongs
Cable pullers
Calipers
Carpenters' levels
Carpenters' squares
Caulking guns
Chain saws
Chip spreaders
Chipping guns
Circular saws
Cold chisels
Concrete mixers
Concrete pumpers
Concrete saws
Coring machines
Crawler shovels
Crowbars
Cutoff saws
Cutout saws
Demolition saws
Disc grinders
Drill presses
Dump trucks
Dynamite blasters
Earth tampers
Electric boring machines
Electric drills
Fall arrest systems
Fencing pliers
Floats
Floor sanders
Floor saws
Forklifts
Forks
Gas leak detection devices
Generators
Gin poles
Guniting machines
Hammer drills
Hammers
Hand grinders
Hand trucks
Hoists
Hole cutters
Hydraulic booms
Hydraulic boring machines
Hydraulic chainsaws
Hydraulic rock drills
Hydraulic speed shoring equipment
Hydraulic track-guided wall saws
Impact hammers
Impact wrenches
Jackhammers
Jet trucks for cleaning sewer lines
Jig saws
Kerosene burners
Ladders
Laser guidance equipment for pipe placement
Laser levels
Laser measuring devices
Laser screeds
Levels
Liquid propane torches
Loaders
Manlifts
Masonry forklifts
Mattocks
Measuring wheels
Micrometers
Mortar hoes
Mortar mixers
Motor graders
Mowing equipment
Mud jacks
Nail guns
Oil distributors
Oxygen/acetylene torches
Paddle mixers
Paint sprayers
Pavement breakers
Pedestal grinders
Picks
Pickup trucks
Plasma cutters
Plaster mixers
Plumb bobs
Pneumatic drills
Pneumatic staplers
Post hole augers
Power buggies
Power drills
Power sanders
Power screwdrivers
Pressure washers
Protective suits
Punches
Rakes
Reciprocating saws
Remote pipe cameras
Respirators
Ride-on vacuum cleaners
Road rollers
Robotic pipe cleaners
Robotic pipe cutters
Rotary hammers
Rough terrain forklifts
Saber saws
Salamanders
Sandblasters
Saws
Scaffolding
Scarifiers
Scissor lifts
Screeds
Screwdrivers
Sewer cleaner vactors
Sewer rodding machines
Shielded arc welding tools
Shovels
Sidewalk sweepers
Skid steer loaders
Slings
Smoke testers
Smudge pots
Snowplows
Spades
Spirit levels
Steam cleaning equipment
Steam jennies
Stucco spray guns
Stump cutters
Suction sweepers
Surveying rods
Swing chairs
Swing stages
Tampers
Tape measures
Tappers
Temperature probes
Theodolites
Torches
Transit levels
Trenchers
Tripods
Trowels
Tuck pointers
Two way radios
Vibratory plate compactors
Wagon drills
Walk-behind compacting equipment
Walk-behind saws
Water levels
Water samplers
Water spraying equipment
Water tank trucks
Weed sprayers
Welding hoods
Winches
Wire stretchers

Technology Skills required for Construction Laborer

Autodesk Revit
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Word
Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management

US Universities

How to become Construction Laborer in 2024