The construction industry is facing a perfect storm of issues, which will result in severe skilled workforce shortages in the near future. The Construction Labor Market Analyzer® (CLMA) provides the reliable data that Owners and contractors need to plan their future projects to avoid higher labor costs and missed schedules because of skilled trade shortages. The CLMA® also provides regional trend information by craft to focus new recruiting and training programs to the critical needs of the industry.
 
The History
When the construction volume peaked in 2006 to 2008, there were more projects than there were skilled trades to work on them. Competition for skills increased wages and incentives, which resulted in busted budgets, missed schedules and sometimes, cancelled projects. Contractors were using extended overtime, per diems, completion bonuses and other innovative approaches to staff their projects.   Read more » about The Perfect Storm for Construction Skilled Trades

History and Hope: Fifty Years Later C³ Gets It Right

Editor’s note:  In parts one through three of this series, Pat Kiley’s article Construction Craftwork as a Career has listed the state of the commercial construction craft workforce, given an account of the history of the industry over the past fifty years, and talked about the reasons for the rise and fall of union versus open shops.  He concludes with the view that the industry can regain esteem for crafts worker careers through a new approach which combines the best of the union and open shop systems.

There is one other factor that has brought us to the state of the industry, described in the first part of this series.  It is, to me, the most regrettable thing that has happened, especially as we look forward.  Raw labor costs have become a real element of the way this market now competes.  Leave aside the lack of benefits and training – many companies pay as little as possible because of the abundant supply of immigrant labor.  And, unscrupulous contractors are skirting the basic employment laws governing overtime and withholding taxes, even minimum wage.  What is even more concerning is that, in this ridiculously competitive fee environment, more owners and general contractors are using these lowball bidders, so they are thriving while many who play fair – who meet the minimum legal requirements – struggle.   Read more » about Construction Craftwork as a Career, part 4 of 4

History and Hope: Union versus Open Shop

Editor’s note:  In parts one and two of this series, Pat Kiley’s article Construction Craftwork as a Career has listed the “brutal facts” of the current state of the commercial construction craft workforce and given an account of the history of the industry over the past fifty years from his personal perspective.  His series continues with an explanation of the decline of union shops with the rise of open shops in the Houston area.

Three things really sounded the death knell for the unions.  The first happened in 1980.  The National Building Trades Unions President, Robert Georgine, lead a successful effort to amend the 1976 ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) Laws and got the union pension funds, (into which contractors were contributing a defined, negotiated hourly contribution per covered worker), declared as “Defined Benefit Pension Plans.”   Read more » about Construction Craftwork as a Career, part 3 of 4

History and Hope: The Past Fifty Years

Editor’s note:  In part one of this series last week, Pat Kiley’s article Construction Craftwork as a Career began as he listed the “brutal facts” of the current state of the commercial construction craft workforce and the industry’s inability to recruit and retain the number of skilled workers needed both now and in the future.  Part one ended with his asking two questions:

Two questions arise:  How did an industry full of very smart people get into this precarious position with its most vital resource?  And, even more importantly, how do we regain control and have the workforce we will need to build all the structures Houston will require in the coming years?  Let’s take the first question and travel back about 50 years.  Let me tell a brief personal story.

I arrived in Houston in 1962.  On my second day here I played golf at the historic Memorial Park Golf Course.  I was paired with a man and his nephew, a young man fresh out of the military.  This veteran was highly jubilant because he had just been accepted into the Carpenters Union Apprenticeship Program, and his father was not even a member – his uncle was.  I learned from his non-stop chatter that his good luck was rare.  Most often you needed to be “born into the union” – your dad had to have been a craftsman if you wanted to become an apprentice.   Read more » about Construction Craftwork as a Career, part 2 of 4

History and Hope: The State of the Workforce

The state of Houston’s Commercial Construction Craft Workforce is an increasingly frequent topic of conversation with contractors and owners.  These discussions always prompt worry and concern.  And, well they should.  Here are the brutal facts:

• For the past 30 years, the industry has been unable to attract young Americans to study the construction trades.  Craftwork is currently unattractive to high school graduates as a career path, and it is further discouraged as a choice by both parents and guidance counselors; it has become the career of last resort.

   Read more » about Construction Craftwork as a Career, part 1 of 4

Reed Construction Data (RCD) chief economist Jim Haughey has given us a glimpse at the next few years of potential construction volume in the top 50 markets around the country.

New York leads the way with $76.6 billion in planned projects.  (I suspect that it is not just one large project either.)  Next in line are San Francisco at $30.8 billion, Los Angeles at $23.6 billion, Washington at $15.8 billion and rounding out the top 5 is Boston at $11.9 billion.

Even though up to 50% of the projects in planning might not go under construction next year, that is still a sizeable chink of commercial work.  By the way, the numbers do not include single family but do include multifamily buildings, a market that is beginning to heat up for 2011.   Read more » about Planned Building Projects For 2011