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Major Texas homebuilders came out against the state's moves toward cracking down on worker misclassification during a legislative hearing on Wednesday. The Leading Builders of America, which represents Perry Homes, David Weekley Homes, and others, argued that putting new regulations in place for the industry would lead to higher home prices and stifle job creation.Steve Henry, speaking for the Leading Builders of America, the trade group that represents Perry and Weekley, said the crackdown on payroll fraud would not only lead to increased home prices, but it would also increase litigation, deter the creation of small businesses and stifle job creation. Andrew Turner, representing the same trade group, said it is a "confusion of an already confusing area of the law." He said the Workforce Commission already has the ability to deal with misclassification. “It’s not fair to single out this industry,” he said. He said that if the legislation were passed, more people would have to be paid as employees instead of independent subcontractors.
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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The Houston/Texas Gulf Coast Chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) hosted its 30th Annual Commercial Expo at the Westin Galleria Hotel in Houston on April 2. Construction Citizen had a booth at the event, and I was the moderator of the panel of featured developers. During the keynote session, I announced that Construction Citizen was holding a drawing for an iPad Mini, and that the winner would be announced the following Thursday with the release of the weekly Construction Citizen email newsletter.The winner of the iPad mini that we gave away is Karen Gregory, Regional Manager of Economic Development with CenterPoint Energy. She won a 16 GB black & slate iPad Mini with Wi-Fi.CenterPoint Energy is the electric power delivery company (commonly known as the “wires and poles” company in our deregulated power world) for the Houston region. They are deeply involved in the economic development efforts that have led to the highest job growth figures in the nation this year.
April 16, 2013
Materials costs diverge as bid prices stay flat for building contractors, drop for highwaysEditor’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.Click here to view the March PPI tables and metro employment figures by state and rank.The producer price index (PPI) for finished goods rose 0.2%, not seasonally adjusted (and fell 0.6%, seasonally adjusted), in March and 1.1% over 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. The PPI for inputs to construction—a weighted average of the cost of all materials used in construction plus items consumed by contractors such as diesel fuel—was unchanged for the month and up 0.9% year-over-year. Indexes for most new nonresidential building construction and subcontractors’ work were similarly flat. The PPIs for new offices, industrial buildings and warehouses were flat in March and rose just 1.0%, 1.1% and 2.3%, respectively, over 12 months.
April 15, 2013
Our mission at Construction Citizen is straightforward: To advance a socially responsible, sustainable, value added construction industry. Doing that is anything but simple...
April 12, 2013
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
