The latest employment numbers will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) this Friday, October 7 and we are all on “pins and needles” waiting to see what they tell us. There has been talk around the country that we are either emerging from the economic doldrums or heading into a double dip recession. It is hard to tell where we are, especially with the politicians spouting their rhetoric in the debates and in the media. This Friday’s numbers should give us a better indication of where we stand.The latest numbers indicated that 90.9% of us are employed and 9.1% of us are looking for work. They also indicated that 60,000 new workers applied for unemployment. The numbers in our industry, according to the latest ENR review (subscription required), are still in the 85-87% employed
Construction may have slowed in the city during the recession, but one creative group has found a use for the heavy equipment. Dig This! is an “adult sized sandbox” where for a hefty fee and with ten minutes training, you can jump into the seat of a backhoe and move rocks or dig in the sand. What a thrill to actually drive the equipment that you played with as Tonka Toys when you were a kid.According to an Associated Press article, owner Ed Mumm started the company “after renting and operating an excavator for himself for two days while building a house in Steamboat Springs, Colo. He quickly realized that toying with heavy construction equipment is a diversion that takes participants completely out
September 29, 2011
This saying was hanging in the bathroom of the facility where we were working at a recent planning session for a contractor’s leadership team.AttitudeThe longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company…
September 22, 2011
According to an article in Constructech, you take a look at the new cloud that Microsoft has built. “Whenever a big company like Microsoft or Google enters the picture, people tend to mark its arrival as ‘legitimizing’ the situation.” The arrival of Microsoft 365 this summer has begun to hit the construction industry as contractors begin to use it and the other Microsoft software like Excel to track their projects. “Microsoft Office 365 brings together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online, delivered via a cloud service.”
September 20, 2011
I grew up in the Bob Dylan era, and his songs are still relevant today. In the late 60s when he was first popular, we were in an unpopular war, there was developing uncertainty in the economy and we all knew that change was in the air, whether on the jobsite, on the streets of Chicago or in the Deep South.Well, here we are again and those Dylan lyrics are ringing in my ears. Now I know many of you who visit our site have no idea what I am talking about, but that is okay. Suffice it to say that it was tough (or so we thought at the time), the issues were complex and the future of the construction industry was shaky.Spin it however you want, we are again in a time of massive change in our industry and those of us who are not ready to meet the future “head on” are about to get slapped in the forehead with a large dose of reality. I don’t have to tell you that there are not enough jobs, projects or prospects; that the low-bid, no bid, lean and mean process that we live in every day right now is painful; but I did anyway.
September 19, 2011
Check this safety site out: Unsafe TV. It is a blog by Fiona Burke that takes a critical approach to the DIY (Do It Yourself) world of home remodeling. The Caution sign on the site warns:Don't try this at home!(Or on the job site, for that matter!)Just because you see it on TV does not mean it's a good, or safe, or smart work practice.One of her recent posts, “In Full Swing”, refers to an episode of “Room Crashers” with a guy taking down a wall in a house by climbing on it with no safety gear and in a way that could have landed him
September 13, 2011
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal last week, “The Labor Department is investigating pay practices at many of the top companies in home building, hitting them with a broad demand for records that has led to complaints of regulatory overreach.”In the move, the Labor Department is “opening a probe under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs matters such as overtime pay and limits on using teen workers”.The Department, as part of its investigations, recently sent letters that, “instructed the home builder to immediately turn over the names, addresses, Social Security numbers,
September 12, 2011
According to a recent headline in Bloomberg, Stagnant August Hiring in U.S. May Signal Renewed Recession, the numbers don’t look promising.The article quotes James Hamilton, an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego who has studied what has led to previous economic downturns in the United States. Hamilton warned:“At this stage of the typical expansion we expect above-average growth and instead we are barely seeing any growth at all. We have to be more worried. Overall, the economy is in a delicate position and another shock could send us down.”Julia Coronado, the chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas, also offered a grim forecast for the US economy. Predicting that the economy will drop at a 2 percent annual rate during the last quarter of 2011, she stated:“September could mark the start of the slump. When there are no jobs and no income, there will not be a lot of spending either.”With the latest job growth number at zero, it looks as though we might be in stall mode
September 08, 2011
As part of the upcoming jobs push by the Administration there is one item of particular interest to those of us in the industry: the renewal of the Federal Highway Act that is set...
September 07, 2011
It has been a rough three or four years for the commercial construction business and with the drought that has plagued the industry for those years, cracks are beginning to show up around the foundations of some very strong companies.We work with a number of developers, contractors, specialty subcontractors and designers, and it is becoming apparent that many of them across the country are running out of projects, out of reserves, and a number of them are running out of gas.“These are the times that try men’s souls!” These are the testing times, these are the times when we create our new future and for some that future will not be as bright as they might have imagined.I wrote a poem a decade ago to use in some of my marketing and strategic planning speeches and workshops to help people begin to look forward, to stretch their vision and to see how quickly their new future would arrive.
September 03, 2011
