The housing numbers came out last week and Bloomberg News reported on the shortages of skilled carpenters and construction workers in the hot, hot, hot Phoenix housing market.  According to the report penned by Bloomberg reporter Prashant Gopal, the housing market has improved from the crash and is now close to a three year high.

That improvement in the market combined with the passage of SB-1070, the Arizona immigration bill that sent a large number of undocumented workers back to their homes in Mexico, has created a skilled worker shortage that one contractor called a real “knife fight” for labor in the market.   Read more » about Phoenix Subcontractors Fighting a Skilled Labor Shortage

Peter Caulfield, a correspondent for the Journal of Commerce: Western Canada’s Construction Newspaper, wrote last week that owners of newly designed buildings are looking at innovative ways to get their buildings constructed as a result of a shortage of skilled labor in the industry.

Caulfield was reporting on a recent Building Owners and Managers Association of Manitoba (BOMA) luncheon where Michael Grimes, the director of business development for FWS Commercial Projects, Ltd. was a guest speaker.  Grimes lamented the high construction costs which he said is the result of a lack of skilled trades people.  According to the article, the cost of building an industrial warehouse in Winnipeg is $90 per square foot while the cost to build the same building in North Carolina is $35 per square foot.  Grimes asserted that this higher cost is due to the lack of available trades people at the sub-contractor level.  He stated:

“Due to all of the construction activity in Winnipeg, the demand for trades people has been exceeding supply for the last five years or so. ... You don’t save money by beating up on your sub-trades.  You save money by thinking outside the box.”   Read more » about Labor Shortages Creating Higher Construction Costs Today

Around the country, more local and state leaders are starting to understand that there has to be a proactive approach to dealing with the impending labor shortfall.  The shortage is already starting to hit some builders and other businesses in Texas, and it will only get worse if current trends hold.

In Georgia, they’ve started a program to address this called “Go Build Georgia”.  It includes big-time promotion from big-name talent: Mike Rowe of Mike Rowe Works and Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs”.  State and industry leaders are working together with educators to try to get kids excited about the idea of a career in the skilled trades.

Governor Nathan Deal’s office put together some statistics that are truly alarming, including:   Read more » about Is “Go Build Georgia” a Model for the Nation?

The debate over whether every child in Texas and America should be on a track to go to a four-year university is heating up. The arguments for and against have been passionate as youth unemployment hits a 60-year high and student-loan debt approaches $1 trillion (and default rates are rising quickly).

“These hard economic times have made it even more difficult for student borrowers to repay their loans, and that’s why implementing education reforms and protecting the maximum Pell grant is more important than ever,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Given all this, more people are asking whether the “college-for-all” mantra is having an effect that amounts to the opposite of what was originally intended.

Forbes contributor Tara Tiger Brown asks: “What is America going to do without skilled workers who can build and fix things?”  She laments the “death of shop class”  in California and around the nation.  She writes:

“There is no training for teachers going through university to learn how to teach shop.  This trend isn’t limited to California, according to John Chocholak who has testified in front of California State Assembly and Congress on the subject of shop class.   Read more » about The Death of Shop Class and What it Means for Our Skilled Labor Workforce

A recent press release from the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) of the AFL-CIO announced “Labor Leaders Release Major Study About the Associated Building and Contractors, Exposing a Disinformation Campaign Designed to Undermine America's Labor Laws”.  The study, entitled  An Analysis of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is an attack on the ABC for its anti-labor, anti-union lobbying and advocacy activities, and is another move by the unions to discredit the “open shop” approach of ABC.

The release cites the study authored by Dr. Thomas J. Kriger, professor of Labor Studies at the National Labor College, published by the BCTD, and underwritten by the AFL-CIO and Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA).  In the press release, Kriger states:

“At a time when the construction industry is hurting and unemployment continues to be high, the ABC is spending millions a year to promote anti-union, anti-government policies that are putting America's workforce at risk.”   Read more » about Construction Wars

This is the second in the series about the Construction Bandits and how they do business in a way that cheats many workers and ultimately you, the taxpayer.

An article by Karl Kiefer appeared in September of 2009 in NumbersUSA under Charles Breiterman’s blog which was entitled, Mixing the Mud: A Working Man’s Views on Illegal Immigration, Tricks of The Trade.  Immigration is not part of our discussion here, rather we wanted to illustrate how the Bandits in our industry get around the existing laws.  We want you to be aware of those illegal practices and we want you to join our efforts to create a more sustainable workforce for the industry.

Kiefer points out one way that the Bandits get around the insurance costs is to lie about the number of workers they have on their crews or to buy coverage for only one or two of their crew.  Conveniently, the “covered” workers are the only ones ever injured on the jobsite even though that is far from the truth.

Another way that they cheat is to misclassify the workers as independent contractors and to pay the workers’ wages with cash without paying taxes and unemployment (FUTA and SUTA).  When they don’t pay Federal or State income taxes, they are cheating us out of tax funds that the country desperately needs today.   Read more » about How the Commercial Construction Bandits Cheat You

Recently, representatives from Construction Citizen (including myself) visited the offices and training facilities of SER-Jobs for Progress, guided by executive director Nory Angel.  One of the programs offered by SER is their Green Jobs Training Project, which they provide in partnership with several other organizations including Workforce Solutions, Houston Community College, Home Builders Institute, Houston Works USA, and Fifth Ward Enrichment Program for Green Training Programs.  They provide training at no cost to eligible individuals which includes career coaching and is followed by pre-employment services and referrals to help the graduates find work after completing one or more of the offered courses.  The program is provided to extremely low-income adults who live in the Houston community.  Read more » about SER “Hands On” Classroom Interviews [VIDEO]

The Construction Career Collaborative (C³) held their third update workshop in Houston in which they reported on their progress to date on this leading edge program to create a sustainable construction workforce.

The organization is in its early development phase and is in the midst of two major pilot construction projects being undertaken by Texas Children’s Hospital and the
MD Anderson Cancer Center.  These owners will require everyone on the jobsite to meet the C3 standards of financial security for the workforce, safety training, and craft training for the industry.  In essence, meet and exceed the existing labor laws for the industry, eliminate wage theft and misclassification, and minimize the “grey” economy that exists in many parts of the construction industry today.

Owners, general contractors, specialty subcontractors, and industry representatives  Read more » about C3 Update

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.”   Read more » about Introducing Scott Braddock, Advocate for Blue Collar Workers

John Killin, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Pacific Northwest chapter and executive director of the Independent Electrical Contractors of Oregon, published an interesting article in Oregon’s Daily Journal of Commerce on the future of the skilled workforce.

He issues a call to action that now is the time to begin the hiring and training of the skilled workforce for the future.  He writes:

“Years are required to prepare people for the leadership roles they will fill in the future. In licensed trades, years are needed to simply move someone from entry level to license-in-hand, full journey-level status.

“Contractors that are beginning to add workers should be sure apprenticeship is at the top of their hiring priorities.  Read more » about A Call To Action for a Skilled Workforce