Is Bricklaying Actually a Dying Trade?
Not quite. Australia certainly hasn’t stopped building with bricks, and bricklayers aren’t about to completely disappear from building sites.
There are also some encouraging signs coming through the apprenticeship system. NCVER data shows construction trade apprenticeship commencements increased 11.7% in the December quarter of 2025 compared with the same quarter a year earlier, while trade completions also reached record levels across construction trades in the 12 months to December 2025.
But zoom out and the picture becomes less reassuring. Across all trades, apprenticeship commencements were still down 4.2% over the full 12 months to December 2025, marking a third consecutive annual decline, while the total number of trade apprentices actively in training also fell 5.2%.
And the pressure is only likely to build. Australia’s broader construction trade shortage is already putting serious pressure on housing targets, with BuildSkills Australia estimating the residential construction sector will need around 116,700 additional workers by mid-2029 to meet the National Housing Accord target.
So no, bricklaying isn’t disappearing tomorrow. But the industry is being asked to build more with a labour pipeline that is already under pressure.
And there’s another part of the story that the statistics don’t fully capture
Finding a Brickie is One Thing. Finding a Really Good One is Another.
The team here Tradiespace has had plenty of conversations with builders and people working around the high-end residential and architectural market, and one concern keeps coming up: specialist bricklayers are becoming hard to find.
We’re not talking about someone capable of getting a standard brick veneer up. We’re talking about the brickie a builder trusts when the brickwork is going to be one of the main features of a multi million dollar build.
Curved walls, brick arches, fireplaces, detailed exposed brickwork, unusual patterns and complex set-outs all require a different level of skill. It’s the sort of work where an architect has spent months working through the detail and the client expects it to be done properly the first time.
Bricklaying at that level is a craft. Even the official occupation description goes well beyond simply stacking bricks. Jobs and Skills Australia lists tasks including reading plans, laying bricks in different designs and shapes, cutting bricks for irregular spaces, checking alignment and constructing arches and other structures.
A lot of that finer knowledge has traditionally been passed from experienced brickie to apprentice on the job. Those small techniques, judgement calls and habits can take years to develop.
And when experienced specialists eventually leave the trade, you don’t replace 30 years of knowledge overnight.
That’s Where Things Get Interesting for Business Owners
Scarcity changes markets. If builders are struggling to find businesses capable of consistently delivering high-quality brickwork, the best operators stop being interchangeable.
That’s a very strong position to be in.
The opportunity for bricklaying businesses over the coming years may not be about becoming the cheapest crew laying the most bricks. It may be about becoming the crew builders don’t want to build without.
Instead of every conversation starting with, “What’s your rate per brick?”, you want it to eventually become, “Can we get these guys on the job?”
That’s when a trade business starts developing genuine pricing power.
Australia Isn’t Exactly Running Out of Construction Work Wither
Then there’s the sheer amount Australia is trying to build. Under the National Housing Accord, governments have set an aspirational target of 1.2 million new well-located homes over the five years to June 2029.
The ABS recorded 48,012 dwelling commencements in the March 2026 quarter alone, including more than 27,000 new private-sector houses.
Whether Australia ultimately reaches the 1.2 million target is another question entirely. But the direction is clear: Australia needs houses, houses need trades, and businesses with difficult to replace skills are going to matter.
So how do bricklaying businesses actually capitalise?
This is where we need to be careful with the word goldmine. A shortage doesn’t automatically make your business profitable.
Charging more means very little if jobs constantly run over, variations aren’t being captured, crews are unreliable or quoting is eating up hours every week without producing enough work. The real opportunity is in what you build around the trade.
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Become known for something
There’s nothing wrong with bread and butter bricklaying. But if your business becomes known for architectural masonry, curves, arches, feature brickwork, restorations or difficult custom jobs, the number of businesses you’re competing against immediately drops.
The harder your capability is to replace, the less likely every job becomes a race to the bottom.
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Get close to good builders
For specialist businesses, strong relationships can be worth more than advertising. If a premium builder knows your crew turns up, communicates properly, understands the plans and delivers the standard expected, that matters.
Do it consistently and you stop being another subcontractor being compared against six quotes. You become part of the builder’s trusted delivery team.
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Show people what you can actually do
Brickies also have one of the easiest trades to market visually. If you’ve just finished an incredible curved wall, complex fireplace or detailed brick feature, get proper photos of it.
Build a portfolio, put the work online and show builders and architects what your business can actually execute. Don’t make them take your word for it.
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Train your own talent
This could become one of the biggest advantages of all. Good tradespeople aren’t created overnight.
If your business can bring younger bricklayers through, train them properly and retain them, you’re slowly building something competitors can’t simply buy next week. You’re creating your own labour pipeline.
That becomes even more important when so much specialist trade knowledge has historically been handed down directly from experienced tradespeople.
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Build the business beyond yourself
This may be the biggest opportunity. If you’re the best brickie in town but every difficult job still requires you personally standing on the scaffold, you’ve built yourself a very well-paid job.
The bigger play is turning that skill into a business. Train people, build systems, develop strong builder relationships, protect your reputation, and get your quoting, scheduling, accounting software and job managment software under control.
Then build a crew capable of producing excellent work without the owner having to personally lay every brick.
That’s when you start building something much harder to replace and potentially something worth something without you.
The Best Bricklayers Will Become More Valuable, Not Less
For decades, plenty of young Australians were told the smart path was getting off the tools. The irony is that some of the skills Australia failed to produce enough of are now exactly the skills the construction industry struggles to find.
That doesn’t mean every bricklaying business is about to start printing money, and the recent improvement in construction apprenticeship commencements is a positive sign.
But trade shortages haven’t disappeared. Australia still has an enormous housing task ahead of it, and highly skilled architectural brickwork isn’t something that can simply be automated or handed to whoever happens to be cheapest that week.
For bricklaying business owners, that creates an opportunity particularly for those willing to specialise, develop younger tradespeople and build a reputation around doing the work other crews can’t.
Bricklaying might not be dying. But genuinely great bricklaying businesses will become increasingly difficult to find.
And if you’re already building one of them, now is the time to make the most of it.
