Reshaping the Construction Industry

A survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America will show that the biggest challenge faced by contractors is their ability to attract new craft professionals. That news comes to us from AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson as he tours the nation speaking to construction executives about the state of the economy.  I caught up with Simonson, who is also a Construction Citizen author, when he was talking to contractors in Austin on Tuesday.In the survey of about 1,300 contractors, 83 percent said it is difficult to find craft professionals while 61 percent said it is hard to fill management positions like project managers and estimators.  

“Jill Wells, an official of Engineers Against Poverty, an advocacy group in Britain, described the guidelines issued by CH2M as commendable. But, she said, the company’s actions were unlikely to have much practical impact because construction companies passed responsibility for worker welfare down to subcontractors.“What the main contractors do is pass the risk down the subcontracting chain, and it is the workers on the bottom of the chain” who bear it, Ms. Wells said.” (New York Times) The New York Times reported this week that the 2014 DLA Piper report on the mistreatment of workers on the construction sites for the 2022 World Cup has resulted in few changes even though the FIFA scandal and the concerns of Qatar were thought to bring about major changes.   

PPI stays mild overall but inputs vary; nonres starts stall, CMD says; housing starts leapEditor’s note:  Construction Citizen is proud to partner with AGC America to bring you AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson's Data DIGest. Check back each week to get Ken's expert analysis of what's happening in our industry.The producer price index (PPI) for final demand increased 0.5%, not seasonally adjusted (0.4%, seasonally adjusted), in June but declined 0.7% over 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. AGC posted tables and an explanation focusing on construction prices and costs. Final demand includes goods, services and five types of nonresidential buildings that BLS says make up 34% of total construction. The PPI for final demand construction, not seasonally adjusted, rose 0.1% in June and 1.8% over 12 months. The overall PPI for new nonresidential building construction—a measure of the price that contractors say they would charge to build a fixed set of five categories of buildings—climbed 1.7% since June 2014.   

The following article was originally published in the July edition of AWCI's Construction Dimensions magazine. Don Procter writes about Marek's Dallas Division President and AWCI President John Hinson.Anyone who knows John Hinson can tell you that he has a lot to say in any conversation about the state of immigration reform and the abuse of misclassifying workers in the United States. The new president of the Association of the Wall and Ceiling industry has strong views on the subject, and while he doesn’t profess to have a solution to the problems the country faces with between 11 million and 12 million undocumented workers (a conservative estimate, in his opinion), he has strong views about reform. Hinson is president of the Dallas division of Marek, one of the oldest wall and ceiling contractors in the United States. He says federal legislation that includes enforcement is required to pull undocumented workers out of the shadows and give them an opportunity to gain employment with legitimate contractors.