Something that’s probably underappreciated is the fact that builders across Texas and the nation are heavily invested in the communities they serve and go out of their way to give back, particularly during Christmas and the rest of the holiday season.Companies and trade associations taking part in various charitable activities do not do it for publicity, which was made clear to me this past week when I started asking around about what sorts of things builders are doing in their communities. They just don't like to brag. So if they won't brag on themselves, the Construction Citizen team thought it would be appropriate for us to brag on them at least a little.To get a list going, I asked the Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas what their chapters are doing to help people celebrate. This is, of course, not meant to be an exhaustive list of charities in which all construction companies are involved. There would simply be no way to mention all the good works happening right now.
One of the things President-elect Donald Trump did not stress during his successful campaign for the White House is the need for those who are out of work to be trained for new careers. In fact, it is difficult to find any example of Trump discussing skills training at all. Any mention of workforce development and craft training was absent from Trump's major speeches on jobs and the economy. That is perhaps because his entire economic message – a message that resonated in states that made the difference for him in the Rust Belt – was centered on the idea that if you do not have a job it is because someone else took it from you. Trump’s political argument went something like this: If you don’t have a job, it’s because an unfair trade deal sent your gig to another country or an undocumented immigrant stole the job that you would hold here in this nation if an “illegal” wasn’t doing it instead of you.
December 21, 2016
As part of Fox’s series on Trump’s first 100 days, Stan Marek talks to reporter Casey Stegall about immigration reform, saying that the best border security happens at the job site.
December 09, 2016
C3’s Gremillion and GHP’s Beard said industry leaders must adopt C3 principles to create an industry that’s attractive to young Americans in order to close the skills gap facing the region.
November 29, 2016
At Construction Citizen, we’re always interested in exactly how various projects are completed through the hard work of skilled craft professionals. One cool way to observe that is through time lapse videos like the one that was just sent to us from the folks at Work Zone Cam.
November 18, 2016
Economic and political uncertainty call into question the durability of this week’s Wall Street rally, but the election of Donald J Trump as the next President of the United States has not inflicted the kind of damage to markets that many analysts expected.That is in large part thanks to Trump’s tone on election night.In the early morning hours of Wednesday after Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton called the Republican candidate to concede, Trump gave a victory speech in which he thanked his former political opponent for her service and even said the nation owes her a debt of gratitude.“I mean that very sincerely. Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division; have to get together,” Trump said. “To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be President for all of Americans, and this is so important to me,” Mr. Trump said. “For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.”
November 11, 2016
Leaders in the commercial construction industry in Houston have a lot to be thankful for despite a state and global economy that is struggling in many ways. Houston – along with the rest of Texas – has been hit hard by the downturn in energy but the economy here is much more diversified than it was during previous oil busts. Improvements in sectors like health care and real estate have helped to blunt some of the economic damage incurred by oil and gas as well as manufacturing.During a conference presented by Kiley Advisors this past week, consultants Pat Kiley and Candace Hernandez told construction executives that while the rate of global economic growth is slowing, there are bright spots that will keep builders here quite busy.Texas has added 1.8 million people since 2010 and a little more than 14% of the state’s economy is now energy specific or energy-related. Job growth has slowed overall, with about 167,000 jobs added in 2015 after more than 361,000 were added in the previous year. GDP growth for 2016 is expected to be 1.6 percent, down from about 3 percent in 2015.Unfortunately, “Houston continues to be the weak sister,” Hernandez said of the unemployment numbers in metropolitan areas around Texas. Unemployment in the Bayou City is 5.7 percent, compared with 4.1 percent in DFW and San Antonio, and 3.5 percent in Austin.
November 02, 2016
Experts are downplaying any possible link between the recent vote by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union and the slowdown of British construction in August.Construction output fell by 1.5% in August after it had gone up just a tick in July, according to the Office of National Statistics. A Reuters poll of economists had shown an expectation of an increase of .2%. The Guardian put it this way:The ONS cautioned that monthly data could be choppy and noted that the drop in construction in August had been driven by a 5.1% fall in infrastructure output.
October 25, 2016
Under a deal with prosecutors, a construction firm based in Manhattan will pay out $9 million to avoid prosecution for over-billing clients over the years. The company will also be forced to establish a hotline that employees can call to report ethics violations.We get the news via the New York Daily News:Plaza Construction billed more than $2.2 million for hours not worked by laborers on projects that included the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Bronx Terminal Market, Federal Reserve Bank, and New York University, authorities said Thursday.Under the deferred prosecution agreement with the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, Plaza will repay its clients which were defrauding in the scheme going back to 1999.“The company defrauded its clients and abused the trust placed in it to provide construction services at some of New York's most storied sites,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Capers.
October 18, 2016
