Busy builders report too few craftsmen

Contractors say electricians, roofers, plumbers in short supply across U.S.

WASHINGTON — Construction companies no longer fret over finding work. They increasingly worry about finding enough skilled workers.

“The industry’s workforce challenge is primarily a craft-worker shortage,” said Stephen Sandherr, the chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, adding that skilled hourly workers represent “the bulk of construction workers.”

The worker shortage, highlighted in the group’s new survey of members, is all the more pronounced this Labor Day weekend because of indications that demand will grow for roofers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters and concrete masons — the positions in shortest supply.

The U.S. Labor Department projects that demand nationwide for all those categories, except for carpenters, will grow considerably faster over the next decade than the pace of overall job growth.

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are promising infrastructure spending to increase employment, but little has been said about finding the workers who will build new bridges and highways.

“You can throw money at it, but you’ve got to figure out a way to train people to build these projects,” said Ron Brown, executive vice president of State Utility Contractors in Monroe, N.C., which installs water and sewer pipelines. “You can put in all the money in the world, but if there aren’t enough people out there to build it, it can’t get built.”

Labor Department data show that demand for masonry workers is expected to grow by 15 percent from 2014 to 2024. That’s more than twice the rate of projected overall 7 percent job growth in the same period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Similarly, demand for electricians is projected to grow 14 percent over that 10-year period. Demand for roofers is expected to grow by 13 percent and for plumbers by 12 percent. Only demand for carpenters nearly matches the overall growth, projected to rise by 6 percent.

The government data line up neatly with what construction firms are reporting in the membership survey released Wednesday by the contractors’ group.

“These worker shortages are occurring at a time when many construction firms have a low opinion of the pipeline for recruiting and preparing new craft workers,” the survey noted in a summary. “Threequarters of construction firms that responded to this survey rated that pipeline as poor or fair, while only 14 percent said the craft-worker pipeline was good or excellent.”

The group’s survey said 79 percent of participating members in North Carolina expected to expand and hire more hourly workers in the next 12 months, but 84 percent reported difficulty in finding skilled hourly craftsmen right now.

“The availability of people, they’re just not out there,” Brown said. “We have a lot of baby boomers,” but “there just aren’t enough younger people coming in.”

In Georgia, there’s a 5-to-1 ratio of older skilled workers leaving versus young ones joining the construction force, said Mike Dunham, CEO of the contractors’ group in Georgia.

“They’re leaving our marketplace, and we’re only putting one person back in the marketplace,” he said on a conference call discussing the survey.

In the survey of 1,500 members, the association said companies were dealing with the shortage by increasing hours, pay and benefits.

Almost half of the companies surveyed — 48 percent — reported that they had increased base pay for craft workers because of shortages. Some 47 percent said they were increasing overtime hours.

One potential solution to the worker shortage is allowing in more skilled migrants or finding a way to legalize those who are already here.

“The association has long championed immigration reform,” said Brian Turmail, spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America,, which favors a temporary loosening of restrictions to address the worker shortage. “We see, as a short-term measure, making it easier for persons with construction skills to legally come into the country.”

Contractors say the current approach puts the onus on them to determine whether someone is in the country legally; they want the government to take responsibility.

One longer-term solution is more vocational training in high schools and community colleges — something manufacturers and contractors have been pushing for a decade.