As you saw in David Dennis’ blog post earlier this week, these are the times when doing the right thing becomes more important than ever but it becomes even harder when owner’s and the competition is squeezing you, your profits and your training for the future.
Since the recession and the current unemployment in our industry of over 20%, many of us have shelved training for a workforce for the future. One thing we need to remember about the future is that it arrives whether we are ready or not. One of my friends told me the other day that the future is already here, it is just not widely distributed yet.
In the 2008 US Bureau of Labor Statistics study of the workforce needs for the next decade we learned that the industry would likely need 1,800,000 new construction workers by 2018 to offset the retirements and the demands for new construction. Surely we have had to reset those numbers and extend that period to 2020, but the demand and the need will be there. In the reset period, many folks have forgotten that the market demand will return, probably faster than we realize.
My opinion is that after the 2012 presidential election, probably in early 2013, we will begin another growth period in the industry. Architects are beginning to see an uptick in their work and that usually precedes our uptick by about twenty-four or thirty-six months.
In preparation for the next growth period, there are a number of companies who realize that now is the time to recruit and train for that rebound and they are putting their investment where it will do the most good for the future even during this time that is trying their souls, their convictions and their cash reserves.
If you are not making that type of move right now, you should consider it. In our next entries we will examine one of those companies who is investing for the workforce of the future and what they are doing to ensure that they are ready for the future.
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