Navigating uncertainty

By Emma Peterson. 

What contractors need to know about 2025’s policy shifts, labor crackdowns and cost increases. 

As we come to the end of 2025, it is hard to believe how much has happened over the course of one year. From rising prices due to tariffs to drastic immigration policy changes, uncertainty has been the name of the game. To look back at the year and unpack a few highlight moments, Heidi J. Ellsworth hosted Trent Cotney of Adams and Reese for a Contractor Outlook™ episode all about navigating tariffs and labor in an uncertain market.  

Trade policy tariffs 

If you’ve been following the news at all, it’s likely you’ve seen a lot of back and forth about what items are tariffed and by how much. The one consistent we’ve seen has been a steep tariff on steel and steel-related accessories. Though other products used across the industry might not have been so directly impacted, everyone is feeling the strain. Trent explained, “We don't know the full extent of the impact of some of these tariffs as they take a while to trickle down through the economy, and they are constantly changing. So that level of uncertainty has created some issues not dissimilar to what we saw during COVID-19.”  

Labor and immigration 

As we all know, there has been a distinct uptick in immigration enforcement. Most obviously, we have seen a rise in United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity around the country. But in addition to that, the current administration has changed some immigration policies to make it harder to bring new labor into the market. Trent explained, “As an industry, we're fairly reliant on foreign labor, both as W-2 and as subcrews with 1099s. And the current administration, which has zero tolerance policies that relates to immigration, just increased H1Bs by $100,000, making it very difficult for the industry to get legal workers here to help fill our jobs.”  

The result? A shrinking labor pool in an industry that was already struggling to find labor. Trent shared his thoughts on this, explaining, "At the end of the day, a shrinking labor pool is going to raise the cost of labor. Both in vertical and horizontal construction.” 

What contractors can do 

In the face of this level of uncertainty, Trent’s advice is twofold: Prepare what you can and focus on your operations. Some proactive steps that Trent recommends include adjusting your contracts to account for possible tariff changes. He explained, “Regardless of whether you're doing residential, commercial or industrial, you want a price acceleration provision in your contract...In some recent contracts I'm working on, we had to create and draft a very specific price acceleration provision that dealt specifically with tariffs and how to track the increased cost based on U.S. website data and other things like that.” 

In terms of immigration, you should make sure all your workers’ documents are organized and up to date (if you want to learn more about preparing for immigration enforcement, check out this article). Beyond these suggestions, Trent’s main recommendation was to stay focused on your business. He shared, “Your focus should be on the basics of running your business, of really trying to make it successful. Obviously, to a certain extent, it's important to understand what's going on in the news, right? But if you get too caught up in it, you’ll feel like the sky is falling. For me, I tend to put my head down and until something pops me in the head and says, ‘hey, I got an issue here,’ then it's just business as usual.” 

Listen to the episode or Watch the recording for more legal insights from Trent.