Where are all the construction workers going during the prolonged recession? [1]
With the unemployment rate in the construction industry still lingering at about 24% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and with many former construction workers scrambling to make ends meet, it is interesting to see where some of them are going. Here is the story of one of them as reported in enctoday.com (Eastern North Carolina Today):
“For Billy Bell, though, the recession is long from over.
Bell, 41, was employed with Adams Concrete when he was laid off in May 2009 from his job. Bell said he wasn’t sure what he might do after he was laid off but soon discovered that Lenoir Community College’s Workforce Investment Act program offered him the opportunity to retrain for a changing job market.
‘I am glad I had the chance to use the Workforce Investment Act to go back to school,’ Bell said.”
Bell is selling the house that his folks built, moving in with his mother in another city and continuing his re-education for his new profession.
This story is likely being reported thousands of times across the US. Many, if not most, of those laid off workers are gone to the industry whether by being retrained as Billy Bell was or by going back to their home countries such as Mexico, the Philippines, or India.
What is your story?