Help wanted
Since the recession, the construction industry has faced a shortage of workers for a growing demand
Like many other high-school students, Alyssa Cuzzolini didn’t think of the construction industry as a career path. • “I didn’t know anything about it,” she said. • Then she went to a meeting of the local chapter of the ACE Mentor Program while attending Columbus Downtown High School & Career Center. ACE stands for architecture, construction and engineering.
“The goal is to get students to look at the construction industry as an option,” said Brian Moran, chairman of the local ACE chapter and a project executive with the Columbus office of Turner Construction.
It’s also a goal that has become increasingly urgent as the industry faces a growing worker shortage, especially as construction work rebounds from the recession.
Moran and others in the construction industry hope to increase the number of high school and college students
See
Page
involved in mentoring, vocational and apprentice programs.
“We’re not seeing anywhere near the number of young people entering the industry as we need,” said James Smith, CEO of Elford, a Columbus-based construction company. “It hasn’t really affected us yet, since we’re not seeing the volume of work we did 10 or 12 years ago, but we could soon.”
In other words, Cuzzolini, 21, probably won’t have a tough time finding a job.
She completed the ACE program while in high school; she graduated in 2012. She is majoring in electrical engineering at Ohio Northern University and will spend the summer as an intern at HAWA Inc., a Columbus engineering firm.
“I’ve learned how to work with groups and how to put ideas together and how much effort goes into designing a building,” Cuzzolini said.
Construction workers nationally peaked at 7.73 million in April 2006 and dropped to 5.43 million by January 2011, a 29.7 percent decline, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The number had risen to 5.98 million in January.
“We’re seeing more shortages in the subcontractor market, in the specialized trades like drywalling, electrical and plumbing,” said Jim Ellspermann, a vice president of Alabama-based Brasfield & Gorrie.
The company is the general contractor for the Pizzuti boutique hotel project in the Short North and the builder for Highpoint on Columbus Commons.
In Columbus, construction workers numbered 36,600 in January 2006 and dropped to 24,700 in January 2010, a 32.5 percent fall. The number was up to 29,300 this past January.
“You might think there’s plenty of construction workers available because the downturn was for so long and the recovery so gradual,” said Ken Simonson, economist for the Associated General Contractors of America.
“But so many left the industry. They were discouraged and retired or went back to school for more training or a job in another sector.”
A survey by the contractors group found that 74 percent of the country’s construction firms are having difficulty finding skilled craft workers such as carpenters, equipment operators and laborers. Fifty-three percent of these firms can’t find enough project supervisors, estimators and engineers.
“We’ll be in a real pinch in five or eight years if we don’t address it now,” said Barton Hacker, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors Central Ohio.
The shortage is the result of several factors, said Tom Manahan, a Turner Construction Co. senior vice president who manages the company’s four Ohio offices and its national industrial group.
“There was the Great Recession,” he said. “A lot of people retired because of it or were forced out of the industry, and they got tired of waiting around for the comeback and found occupations in other fields.”
About 30 to 40 percent of the construction workforce comprises baby boomers and not enough younger workers are entering the industry as the boomers retire, he said.
“We’re not viewed by the younger generation as attractive when compared to other options,” Manahan said. “We’re viewed as old-school.”
Industry experts say the situation is better in Ohio than in some other areas.
“In other parts of the country, we’re seeing more of the pressures of labor shortages,” Manahan said. “If we can’t get the skilled labor we need, we can’t chase as many projects or projects will take longer to get completed or cost more.”
Programs such as ACE and the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Ohio Construction Academy are wooing highschool students, telling them the pay is good, the industry has embraced technology and career opportunities are plentiful.
“There was a study that indicated a number of the trades were earning more than $45,000 a year and construction supervisors were in the $59,000 range,” Manahan said. “We encourage young people to get more training after high school, but that doesn’t have to be a four-year degree.”
Turner hires about 46 college students every year in Ohio as part of a co-op program to encourage students to consider construction as a career.
“You can make a good living in this industry,” Elford’s Smith said. “And it’s very rewarding and fulfilling as you work with your team to improve the community; this is your chance to create something lasting: schools, churches, hospitals, you name it.”