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Scott Braddock is a broadcast journalist whose recent experience with unemployment sparked a very personal interest in the employment outlook in Texas.  This week he posted a blog on his website entitled “The Value of Blue Collar Work” in which he writes about many of the issues which have also been discussed on Construction Citizen.  He understands that not all careers begin with a four-year college degree, partly due to his own story.  He writes:

“I don’t have a college education but I am trained as a journalist.  Over the years, companies large and small have prepared me to report and cover stories and trends. My on-the-job training is worth more to me than a college degree might ever have been in my chosen field.”

Braddock includes a link to a 9-minute video of Evan Smith of The Texas Tribune interviewing state Senator Dan Patrick (R-Houston) earlier this month about changes he believes are needed in the education system, and the need for “blue collar work” to be appreciated and pursued.  Patrick is quoted as saying:   [node:read-more:link]

After I posted my thoughts on blue collar workers, this is one of the comments I received on Scott Braddock: A Voice for Texas from a reader:

“It is not just the academic types who devalue blue collar labor but corporate number crunchers who assume one set of hands is as good as another when it comes to these sorts of jobs and work to literally devalue the job by paying less, ignoring safety and job conditions and assuming there will always be fresh bodies to fill the position.  Problem is that when management develops that level of disdain for workers, [node:read-more:link]

Following the bold prediction that housing starts will be around 1.6 million in the next couple years, we at Construction Citizen thought it would be interesting to explore what's being done to ensure that there will be enough skilled workers to meet that demand.  What follows is part of our conversation with John Courson, President and CEO of the Home Builders Institute.

Braddock: With housing starts predicted to get back to “normal” levels of 1.6 million annually by 2016 at the latest, what is HBI doing to ensure that there will be enough skilled workers to meet demand?

Courson: Home builders are planning to hire more workers as they see improvements in the market, but they are concerned about worker skill levels.  In fact, according to data HBI released in July about the construction labor market collected from NAHB’s HMI survey of home builders, 41 percent plan to hire skilled workers during the next year, but 62 percent of home builders have concerns about workers needing training before they are ready to begin their work. [node:read-more:link]

AGC 2013 is celebrating 90 years in Houston. With that in mind, I sat down with AGC Houston President Jerry Nevlud recently at his office to talk about the road ahead for the construction industry in Southeast Texas. Nevlud, who's also a Construction Citizen blogger, told me things look good but the "elephant in the room" is the workforce and whether the industry will embrace private sector solutions for addressing it or wait for the government to take the lead.

BRADDOCK: Jerry, given the economic conditions and everything else happening in this market, what's the outlook for the year ahead?

NEVLUD: The outlook is great. I think that we're all very bullish on the Houston market for the next several years. I guess the, obviously with where the Eagle Ford Shale and what's going on and what the oil and gas companies are doing and so that creates a great base for construction and we've had several big bonds pass, so from that standpoint we're very bullish on the opportunities for our members. Obviously, the 800-pound elephant in the room is the [node:read-more:link]

Finding workers to rebuild homes and other structures damaged or completely destroyed by Hurricane Harvey this year on the Gulf Coast is a challenge compounded by the fact that the United States does not have a way for undocumented residents to gain legal status. [node:read-more:link]