PAS President Jeff Robinson says that although respondents tend to underestimate future compensation, he thinks the 2026 forecast is likely accurate. “I think we’d be lucky to hit 4.1% or 4.2%,” he says. “I think it’s going to be really close to that 4%.”

The northeastern states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont saw the biggest drop—to 4.2% in 2025 from 4.6% in 2024. This year, respondents in that region expect annual increases to decline to 3.6%—a 0.6% percentage drop. The southeastern region—which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee—is the only other area of the country that anticipates a 0.6% percentage drop this year, dipping to 4% from 4.6% last year.

Notably, the two regions that were already at 4% last year forecasted in the survey that they expect to remain at 4% this year, including the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington) and the Plains states (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska).

Robinson notes that 4% increases are within the range of historic norms, so there is a chance that such increases could stabilize for the coming years.

The level of annual increase can vary depending on the market sector. In the buildings and industrial sectors, for example, Robinson says many staff categories, especially superintendents, outpaced averages.

Robinson notes that respondents often include those who do mission critical work in those sectors. Meanwhile, he said the survey showed some cooling in the heavy civil sector, noting that the sector had previously been offering higher than average increases compared to other sectors.

The boom in data center work has been a big driver of compensation for new hires in recent years, says David Williams, market leader at recruiting firm Kimmel & Associates. “About half of my searches are in data centers,” he says.

At the staff level, he says professionals in operations, particularly project managers, are in high demand. “Before data centers [got big], a senior project manager was probably looking at $150,000 [annually] and now it’s going up to $175,000 for a senior project manager,” he says.

Williams adds that data center projects are often high-margin work, and construction staff are seeing healthier bonuses. “Where traditionally, you’d see a 25% bonus, it’s now 30%,” he adds.

Williams says he also sees a bit of a backlash that is driving some candidates away from companies engaged in data center projects. “I’ve heard people say that some of the companies jumping into data centers are not that experienced and [employees] are saying, ‘This is a mess. I’m out.’”

One notable trend in compensation packages is significant increases in vehicle allowances. Of the 27 positions that PAS tracks, 25 have seen double-digit vehicle allowance increases since 2023. Nearly half of those positions saw average vehicle allowance increases of at least 20% between 2023 and 2026. At the high end, business development directors saw average vehicle allowances increase by 41% during that time period.

Bob Honour, president of recruiting firm Honour Consulting, says he has seen a notable increase in companies offering vehicle allowances, shifting away from offering company-owned or company-leased cars. As that trend has taken hold, employees and job candidates are getting savvier about what allowances they should expect. “[Employees] understand that maybe that allowance was never quite enough to begin with,” Honour says.

“When they agreed to, say, a $400 allowance and they finally did plug [in] the numbers, they realized, ‘Wait, that wasn’t such a good deal. Maybe we need to up this a little bit.’”

Honour says that, while certain sectors such as mission critical are aggressively hiring for specific projects, he has seen more caution from both employers and employees.

“There’s plenty of hiring going on, but it’s a bit of a slower process,” he says. “In part, it’s because people are less interested in making a move. We started to notice that last year. I think it all goes to uncertainty about the economy.”