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The employment figures for December 2012 released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that:“Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 155,000 in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.8 percent. Employment increased in health care, food services and drinking places, construction, and manufacturing.”Following a loss of 10,000 construction jobs in November, this is really good news. According to the press release:“Construction added 30,000 jobs in December, led by employment increases in construction of buildings (+13,000) and in residential specialty trade contractors (+12,000).”It will be interesting to see what the impact of the Fiscal Cliff and the general uncertainty will have on hiring plans for the Spring. With the latest round of construction starts and the loosening of some financing, it could be a strong spring season for our industry.
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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Construction industry leaders in North Texas have started the process of figuring out what kind of payroll fraud crackdown they could possibly support.Members of the Government Affairs Committee of TEXO in Dallas/Fort Worth met to talk about their legislative priorities on Monday and by all accounts they had a lively discussion about the issue of worker misclassification. Comprised of members from throughout North Texas, TEXO is one of the largest construction industry trade associations in the state.Jack Baxley, TEXO Vice President of Government Affairs, told me members of the group are still mulling their options and they'll hopefully have recommendations ready by the end of the month. “This isn't something that just popped up today,” he said while noting that TEXO wants to make sure that any legislation passed is good for the industry.
January 08, 2013
Key players in the construction industry in North Texas today are expected to decide whether they'll support efforts to crack down on the intentional misclassification of construction workers across the state.Members of the Government Affairs Committee of TEXO, the large trade association for builders in the Dallas/Fort Worth region, are meeting Monday talk about whether they'll take a formal stand against misclassification, also known as payroll fraud, and support legislation to deal with it. The Texas Workforce Commission has endorsed the idea of rooting out payroll fraud on government contracts. Lawmakers could decide to do even more than that, depending on what happens during the Texas Legislature's regular session starting this month. Senator John Carona, R-Dallas, has told his staff at the Business and Commerce Committee to start the process of drafting legislation.
January 07, 2013
As promised, here is some of the video I shot of the Crane Rodeo Regional Qualifier in Houston, Texas on September 12. The event was one of several held across the country to allow crane operators to qualify for the National Championship in October. There they competed for prizes and bragging rights, showcased their skills, and helped raise awareness for the upcoming OSHA regulations which will require all operators to obtain minimum certifications.Operators who competed in the rodeos were judged on a system which penalized for errors such as hitting the ground with the hook, swinging the pipe out of the designated travel zone, or knocking over a barrel; and also for the time it took the operator to complete the task.
January 03, 2013
Builders around the state will be paying extra close attention to developments in Austin as the 83rd Texas Legislature gavels into session later this month. One of the industry's top concerns is the growing problem of worker misclassfication, also known as payroll fraud.In the legislature's last session two years ago, a payroll fraud proposal from State Representative Joe Deshotel, D-Port Arthur, was unsuccessful, and labor leaders have been pushing for a solution for more than a decade only to consistently see their efforts fail. But, the economic and political landscape has changed dramatically in just the last two years.The trend we've noticed in our reporting at Construction Citizen is that this is no longer seen as a liberal or progressive cause. More and more conservative republicans are now pushing to deal with misclassification because they see it as a rule of law issue.
January 03, 2013
The Crane Institute located near Orlando Florida was the site of the 2012 Southeast Regional Qualifier Event on Oct 3, the fifth and final of the Regional Qualifying Rodeos which were held around the United States before the National Championship on October 27 at the Ritchie Brothers Equipment Auction in Davenport, Florida.The following video and transcript is a summary of that final Regional Qualifier, narrated by Jim Headley, Construction Citizen blogger and president of the Crane Institute of America, Inc. If you enjoy watching this crane action video, look for my next post which will simply be some of the video I shot
December 27, 2012
“AWCI members are good people, but sometimes bad things happen to good people,” begins this eight-minute video about a program called AWCI Cares. The informational video explains how members of the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry (AWCI) who are met with unexpected financial difficulties may be eligible to receive assistance.The “CARES” stands for Caring Action Relief in Emergency Situations, and many members of AWCI are unaware that this program exists. It is designed to provide members and their families financial aid following unexpected expenses such as medical bills, funeral expenses, home loss through fire or natural disaster, or to fill the gap when workers’ compensation insurance does not cover all necessary expenses.
December 26, 2012
The blue collar heroes we talk about all the time on Construction Citizen are constantly doing good works throughout the communities where they live. In fact, they do this work in an under-the-radar kind of way that causes them to seldom be thanked for it.I found a prime example of this in Northwest Harris County, where workers for several companies including Karsten Interiors, Excel Drywall, D.E. Harvey Builders, Marek Brothers Systems, and others were helping to renovate a boys’ home called The Good Shepherd Residential Treatment Center. (See below for a complete list of the companies involved.)Founded in 1999, the center is a 40-bed home for boys who have been removed from their families by Texas courts for a variety of reasons. It is a non-profit and is always in need of donations.Administrator and CEO of The Good Shepherd, Dr. J. Charles Hinds, told me some of the boys were simply neglected by their families and others were subjected to terrible abuse.
December 20, 2012
Brasfield & Gorrie, one of the nation’s largest privately held construction firms, recently celebrated the topping out of the second phase of Project ONE, a $42.4 million, two-tower office building and retail space located in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. Greenville’s WYFF News 4 Team reported last year that the project is being called “ONE” to “signify its central place”, according to developer Bob Hughes of Hughes Development Corporation. The entire project, which is being built at the site of the former historic Woolworth building, is scheduled to be completed in June 2013.Phase II broke ground in June 2012 and includes the 11-story, 201,000 square foot South Office Tower, which has seven floors of meeting and training rooms as well as an auditorium space for CertusBank, an anchor tenant.
December 19, 2012
The skills gap we’ve covered extensively on Construction Citizen isn’t just a phenomenon in the United States. It’s also a problem in Europe and the Middle East, where The Economist reports that a quarter of 15- to 24-year-olds don’t have a job.In a piece called “The Great Mismatch”, The Economist Schumpeter Blog says:“Altogether 75 million of the world’s young people are unemployed and twice that number are underemployed. This not only represents a huge loss of productive capacity as people in the prime of life are turned into dependents. It is also a potential source of social disruption and a daily source of individual angst.
December 17, 2012
