Keith Hampson on labor costs
From Leading collaborative industry research from the land down under - Keith Hampson, SBE Australia · · CIBSecretariat
“In Australia, the construction labor costs are quite high compared to some states in the US, largely due to strong union engagement across the country. This drives a higher motivation towards automation and robotics, as well as a stronger focus on workplace health and safety.”
On , Keith Hampson, Senior Vice President of Global Rail & Transit - Business Lines at AECOM, spoke about labor costs during Leading collaborative industry research from the land down under - Keith Hampson, SBE Australia on CIBSecretariat.
About Keith Hampson
Keith Hampson, Senior Vice President of Global Rail & Transit - Business Lines at Aecom, has been active in discussions on construction industry research and collaboration. In a January 2025 seminar, Hampson discussed Australia's construction sector, noting that high labor costs driven by strong union engagement motivate a push toward automation and robotics. He also highlighted the Australian government's target of delivering 1.2 million homes over five years, which he said is reinvigorating interest in prefabrication and offsite manufacturing. Hampson emphasized the importance of international partnerships for advancing automation, digitization, and artificial intelligence in construction, and identified workforce skilling as a key challenge. As immediate past president of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), Hampson has outlined priorities for the organization. In a 2023 interview, he said his goals as president were to restore research at the center of CIB, reinforce member services, and establish the machinery to deliver those aims. He stressed the need for proactive research in the built environment, calling it "the core of human existence," and advocated for leveraging CIB working commissions on topics such as safety, information technology, and healthy cities. Hampson also noted that he personally endowed a CIB award to encourage early career researchers to engage with industry.