Our mission at Construction Citizen is straightforward: To advance a socially responsible, sustainable, value added construction industry. Doing that is anything but simple...
Reshaping the Construction Industry
In the second installment of his excellent series on the Texas construction industry, NPR Correspondent Wade Goodwyn highlights the difference between contractors who play by the rules, like Marek Brothers Systems in Houston, and companies that misclassify their employees. The former is out front with how they do business, and the latter doesn't even want their name used on the radio or in print.From the report:At Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Marek's workers are building the interior for the hospital's newest wing. Workers ride around on what are called “motorized man lifts”, which allow them to work high in the air, power tools in hand.Baylor Hospital is the kind of client that hires Marek's companies – an owner that must have its building done to exacting specifications. But these days that’s unusual, according to Stan Marek.
April 11, 2013
According to MSN Careerbuilder, skilled workforce shortages are impacting employers across the globe as the world economy improves.The latest Career Builder Survey was taken by employers in the ten largest economies in the world and the results are clear: “When asked which positions were the hardest to fill, employers cited technical fields -- information technology and engineering -- as being some of the most difficult. Other areas included sales, customer service, research and development, production, creative/design and marketing.”This infographic illustrates the findings of the survey and points to the issue that we have been blogging about for the last two years. There is a skill set mismatch in our industry
April 10, 2013
On today's installment of NPR's Morning Edition, correspondent Wade Goodwyn put the microscope on the Texas construction industry and what he found was disturbing. Click here to listen to the story.From his report:If wage theft is a nasty cousin of slavery...there's a deeper, more fundamental sickness affecting the Texas construction industry: the misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors instead of as employees.
April 10, 2013
In December, Elizabeth McPherson toured the build-out of a new bank and office space in Williams Tower, located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas right behind the Houston Galleria, and interviewed the owner’s representative.As a follow-up to that posting, I interviewed the design team to see how they approached this project and to gather some tips that complete the story of how this project came together successfully.The designer for the project was Slovack-Bass, a partnership of Marjorie Slovack, RID, ASID and John Bass. They have worked together for over 20 years in both the residential and the commercial markets and in the process, they have developed a team of skilled project professionals and designers, several of whom worked on this project.
April 09, 2013
Focus on Re-Accreditation, Program Development, and a New Certification Category for Lift DirectorsMore than 30 industry stakeholders attended the annual meeting for the Crane Institute of America Certification (CIC), held March 5-7, 2013 in Lake Mary, FL. A cross-section of experts from CIC's Governing and Advisory Committees plus several notable guests reviewed written and practical exam materials in preparation for re-accreditation with the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and application for accreditation with ANSI.“NCCA requires re-accreditation every five years. CIC first became accredited by NCCA in 2008. CIC has also received preliminary application approval from ANSI and expects to add ANSI accreditations this year for mobile and tower cranes at different levels of type and capacity." - Debbie Dickinson, Executive Director of CIC.
April 08, 2013
Construction jobs, spending continue gains; outlook varies for factories, offices, apts.Editor’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.Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 88,000, seasonally adjusted, in March and 1,910,000 (1.4%) over 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The unemployment rate was 7.6%, not seasonally adjusted (and seasonally adjusted), down from 8.4% a year earlier. Construction employment rose for the tenth straight month and totaled 5,802,000, seasonally adjusted, the most since September 2009. Construction employment rose 162,000 (2.9%) from March 2012, while total hours worked in construction increased by 3.9%, implying that contractors are lengthening working hours and also hiring new workers. The unemployment rate for former construction workers dropped from 17.2%, not seasonally adjusted, in March 2012 to 14.7%. Residential construction employment (residential building and specialty trade contractors) rose by 14,800, seasonally adjusted, for the month and 77,800 (3.8%) for the year. Nonresidential employment (building, specialty trades, and heavy and civil engineering construction) climbed by 3,000 and 84,400 (2.3%), respectively.Construction spending in February totaled $885 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate,
April 05, 2013
Construction industry leaders, associations, labor unions and others testified before lawmakers in Austin on Wednesday that the state needs to aggressively go after companies that misclassify their employees to avoid paying payroll taxes.The bill was laid out and the latest version does the following:Leaves the current common law test definition in place for independent contractor.Imposes a penalty of $100 for those in construction that misclassify their worker for the first time.Imposes up to a $1,000 penalty per employee, for each subsequent violation (this amount will be determined by the Texas Workforce Commission on a case-by-case basis).Allows an employer to appeal a violation and get the violation removed or get the penalty reduced based on certain criteria.
April 04, 2013
This article by Representative Armando Walle, D-Houston originally appeared in the Houston Chronicle on April 1, 2013. Reprinted with permission.In recent years,...
April 03, 2013
The American Subcontractors Association’s National Business Forum and Convention was held two weeks ago in Las Vegas and, by any measure, it was a resounding success.Part of what made it so successful was a shift in how time at the convention was scheduled. Usually when you go to these events, you have to hit the ground running. You’re attending classes and panel discussions all day long, then you head for the very structured evening events. Those are great and they were still part of this convention, but the big difference was the amount of time that was built in to allow for what you might call “organic networking.”
April 02, 2013