Greetings!
7-7-15
Jobs Available-Are there Workers to Fill Them?
As this Country and our region continue to crawl out of the economic downturn we had for several years, one thing is becoming very apparent-we cannot continue to grow without adding more workers to our workforce.
This is an obvious problem. But it is also one that the construction industry is not vigorously recognizing nor acting on. Construction unemployment is at an all-time low right now, and I continue to get phone calls and emails asking if I know of workers with some sort of skills or another. Construction companies are struggling to find enough workers to fulfill the work they are currently obligated or under contract to perform. Yet bidding opportunities continue to present themselves. What is a company to do? It is getting to a point where the amount of dollars you offer a new employee is a moot point. Poaching of skilled workers is getting epidemic and overpaying is routine.
It used to be that public agencies were the only recourse for a few years during the downturn. Now, however, public agencies are scrambling to fill positions being made available because of the swollen General Fund budgets. Attrition of baby boomers hitting retirement age without a corresponding number of young people entering the market is causing a shortage of workers on top of an already existing shortage of workers.
The AGC recently published an article you may find of interest-it is available here–
So what is the solution? The solution was to expose high school students to the options available to them in the construction industry about 5-8 years ago. It is compelling to understand that many students decide to not pursue the construction industry because the options are not well known to students, and the work is generally thought of as too hard, too dirty, too dangerous, too low paying, or some combination of all of the above reasons to not go in that direction for most high schoolers.
The ECA would like to try and help our members find employees. In order to have this as a possibility, we need some more information. Please consider accessing a short survey that you can find by clicking this link—
Perhaps we can help by getting information out to high schools, Job Links, and other areas that are not your traditional means of finding employees.
We are here to help-please help us by filling out the survey!
That’s All Folks!
John Bly
