GOOD HELP CAN BE HARD TO FIND
Contractors across the U. S. see shortage of skilled workers despite growing economy
They show up most every day, hard hats in hand, and put in a full day riveting together the buildings sprouting across southwestern Connecticut, whether new homes in Greenwich, huge structures like the SoNo Collection mall taking shape in Norwalk, or renovations at schools and other buildings across the region.
These days they are getting harder to find — with implications for the costs and timelines of projects that would not be built without their work.
In an Associated General Contractors survey with Autodesk of more than 165 Northeast builders published recently of contractors looking to hire hourly tradesmen for construction jobs, 86 percent said they had difficulties filling those jobs.
Only one in 10 Northeast builders had no jobs to fill, according to the AGC survey, highlighting the difficulties facing contractors and their clients as private- sector employment in Connecticut and the nation continues to climb even as foundations are poured for new projects.
In southwestern Connecticut where a slow- growing employment market has become the new norm, builders were a notable outlier, adding 1,400 jobs in the past year — an 11 percent hiring clip that was among the 21 fastest rates in the nation, according to AGC.
Higher prices with ‘ a full belly’
The effect of worker shortages is cascading into projects, according to AGC. Nearly half of U. S. general contractors told the association it is taking them longer to complete projects. About a quarter say they are baking longer timelines into their bids for future work in anticipation of problems securing qualified tradespeople.
“Remember that ( when) the construction industry in Connecticut was struggling with an aging workforce problem before the downturn, that situation was exacerbated when the industry had to scale back on its training programs for years because ( the state) did not want to train people for unemployment,” said Don Shubert, head of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association. “Now the industry is faced with a five- or six- year skills gap. The good news is that we have very well- established, privately funded apprenticeship training programs that can be easily ramped up to meet demand if work stabilizes again.”
“Remember that ( when) the construction industry in Connecticut was struggling with an aging workforce problem before the downturn, that situation was exacerbated when the industry had to scale back on its training programs for years because ( the state) did not want to train people for unemployment.” Don Shubert, head of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association
Mark De Pecol ran a construction company before creating Senior Living Development, which has offices in Norwalk and Westport. SLD got senior communities designed and approved before selling the turnkey projects to other developers to build and run.
“It’s all cyclical,” De Pekol told Hearst Connecticut Media. “The labor market tightens up and
( labor) prices go up. Contractors who have a full belly quote higher prices. Things turn, and they get hungry again.”
A mechanism for foreign- born workers
Still, AGC found that wages have been slower to follow, with 62 percent of construction firms nationally reporting they had increased their base pay for craftsmen as a result of hiring difficulties. Only one in four added benefits or incentive pay such as bonuses to lure workers.
AGC sees immigration as one answer to the problem, saying the U. S. government should issue more visas to people with construction skills. And it would double funding for workforce development.
“The broken immigration system is a prime area to look to address the worker shortage with an estimated 10 million unauthorized individuals in the United States without the ability to lawfully work for employers,” AGC said in a late August study of how to improve the number of qualified tradespeople. “The lack of a legal visa program for construction workers and a recent tightening of legal immigration will worsen worker shortages if not addressed comprehensively. True reform must include a mechanism for construction industry employers to hire the temporary foreign- born workers they need when American workers are unavailable and economic demand merits.”