Last week’s update on housing starts was good news for builders, but a senior economist at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has even more encouraging projections for the next couple of years.David Crowe, NAHB Chief Economist, said “we’ve come a long way, but we are not quite halfway back to normal.” He predicts housing starts will be at “normal” levels again in 2015 or by 2016 at the latest. What would be “normal” levels? He said that would mean about 1.6 million housing starts annually.Even though Crowe is bullish about the long-term fortunes of his industry, he described an economic landscape that is markedly different from the way it appeared before the housing bubble burst. He said a lot of households are now renters after they could no longer afford their home. “People who lost their homes are still a household, but they're renting after a foreclosure.”
The state of the American construction workforce was described as “the Wild West” during a lively panel discussion at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC this week.During a 90 minute conversation about what can be done to improve conditions and create real career paths for construction workers, University of Illinois at Chicago Professor Nik Theodore said residential construction can be broken into two pieces: large developers/homebuilders and the specialty contractors who deal in specific skilled trades.“We’ve got an industry that’s quite fragmented,” Theodore said. “Within the residential segment, a lot of it is like the Wild West. It runs the gamut from those who play by the rules all the way to those who break the laws and routinely engage in wage theft.”
October 20, 2012
Just last week, construction executive Stan Marek recently noted here on Construction Citizen, “The labor situation in Houston is heading into the biggest crisis we have ever seen.” Marek is right and the problem is just now really starting to impact builders throughout the area.To find out more, I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes with Kathryn “Toy” Wood, CEO of the Greater Houston Builders Association (GHBA) to talk about what she’s hearing from her membership. Wood says home builders around the area are already having problems scheduling projects because there simply aren’t enough skilled laborers to do the kind of work that’s required. Wood mentioned that even projects being built through GHBA’s charity, HomeAid Houston, are being slowed down because the needed workforce is simply not available.
October 16, 2012
A Houston construction executive is in the national spotlight this week for a conversation about how to improve working conditions and create a real career path for blue collar men and women from coast to coast.Mike Holland, Division President of Marek Brothers Systems, Inc. will join Workers Defense Project Policy Analyst Emily Timm and others in Washington for a forum moderated by NPR’s Yuki Noguchi. With support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Ford Foundation, this series, Reinventing Low Wage Work: A Discussion on the Workforce in Residential Construction, takes an explicit look at the growth of occupations like construction, nursing assistants, food servers and cashiers, and the challenges those workers face.You can register for Thursday's discussion on the Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative website.
October 13, 2012
You never know where you’re going to find new career opportunities for the nation’s youth. During a National Night Out event in Houston last week, we found some young boys and girls getting a taste of what it’s like to be a carpenter.Darryl Samuels, Managing Partner of construction management and commercial development company D. Samuels & Associates, LLC, told Construction Citizen that he’s constantly trying to find ways to get young people interested in the skilled trades. We've done our best to highlight these kinds of efforts on Construction Citizen. For his part, Samuels brought nails, hammers and some wood to an event in the Kashmere Gardens neighborhood and invited kids to give it a try. Samuels remarked:“The point is to introduce them to construction. A lot of kids just don't know anything about it. The younger they are, the more interested they are.
October 08, 2012
Construction spending has fallen for the second consecutive month, dipping 0.6 percent in August, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But, spending is actually up 6.5 percent from one year ago.Nonresidential construction spending fell 1.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $557.2 billion. Year-over-year, nonresidential construction spending is up 2.2 percent.Private nonresidential construction spending declined 1.7 percent for the month, but remains 7.2 percent higher than one year ago. Public nonresidential construction spending slipped 0.9 percent in August and is down 2.7 compared to the same time last year.Construction subsectors posting the largest monthly decreases in spending include communication, down 3.4 percent; power, down 3 percent; and educational, down 2.9 percent. The largest year-over-year decreases in spending were experienced in conservation and development,
October 02, 2012
We’ve written extensively at Construction Citizen about the need to change the attitude many Americans have toward the skilled trades and blue collar workers who built this country. On Friday, a national effort’s being made to honor those who do the hardest jobs and too often get the least respect.National Tradesmen Day is being celebrated from coast to coast to let the craftsmen of the nation know they’re appreciated. Here in Texas, the big event is being held at the construction site of the new Parkland Hospital being built in Dallas. Roughly 1200 tradesmen are being honored for their service on the project, said Cheryl Mehrmann, spokeswoman for IRWIN Tools. IRWIN Tools is the sponsor of National Tradesmen Day, now in its second year.Mehrmann said the workers really light up when they realize the only purpose of the event is to thank them for the jobs they do. She stated:“We're so focused on working with tradesmen because we're trying to help them extend their capabilities through the tools they use.
September 20, 2012
One thing that I know really frustrates construction industry executives is, all too often, educators don’t emphasize the skilled trades as a legitimate career path. The owner of a masonry company in the Houston area told me he recently featured his business at a high school career day, and he was very disappointed to see parents making sure their kids would steer clear of his booth. This executive shook his head and asked “How am I supposed to find workers when that's the attitude?”With that as the backdrop, it’s encouraging to see there are some high schools where construction is still being championed as a real opportunity for kids to have a career of integrity.In Bloomington, Indiana, Bloomington High School actually offers “Construction Technology” class as a way to introduce kids to the skilled trades and give them some hands-on experience.
September 20, 2012
A Houston construction worker was threatened at gunpoint by his employer last Friday because he simply asked to be paid wages he was owed, faith leaders told Construction Citizen.Lucas Oscar Suazo was one of about 30 men doing a demolition project in downtown Houston for Full Service Construction Inc. over the last few months, and it appears that not only were they all being misclassified as contractors, they were also being paid less than minimum wage.Suazo is owed $1929.66 for six weeks worth of work. Even though he’s been doing some of the hardest labor a person can do in the hot Texas sun, the 24-year-old construction worker had to borrow money to stay afloat
September 13, 2012
Last week’s landfall of Hurricane Isaac is a stark reminder of something we’ve reported on extensively at Construction Citizen: There are many unscrupulous contractors out there who won’t wait a second to take advantage during a crisis.The damage from Isaac could cost as much as $1.5 billion, according to a catastrophe modeling company, EQECAT Incorporated. Many people who live in Louisiana and Mississippi will need extensive work done on their homes and some might have to completely rebuild. The New Orleans Times-Picayune is already reporting that contractors are moving into St. Tammany Parish, for example, looking for work after the hurricane. Some, but not all, of these contractors are what my friend Jim Kollaer calls “The gypsies.” These are the folks who swoop in, do shoddy work, then disappear never to be heard from again.Several things the St. Tammany Parish is telling people to do if they need repair work following the hurricane:
September 05, 2012
