When construction and trades professionals are asked which single trade the skills shortage will hit hardest, they don’t name electricians or plumbers first. They name the carpenters and woodworkers, and the consequence they point to most isn’t a blown budget or a slipped schedule. It’s a decline in the quality of the work itself. Eagle Woodworking surveyed 500 U.S. construction and trades professionals, a mix of contractors, tradespeople, project managers, and builders, to understand where the skilled-labor shortage is landing hardest and what it’s doing to the work. The results describe a shortage that has moved well past a hiring inconvenience. Respondents report … watching the most experienced hands in the trade age out faster than anyone is replacing them. …The shortage isn’t mainly a story about too few workers. It’s a story about too few skilled ones, and in a trade built on craft, that’s where the real damage shows up.