According to a recent survey of construction firms, 80 percent of American contractors have a hard time finding qualified hourly craft workers. The shortage is leading to higher costs and slower construction processes.
The survey, released on August 29th by Autodesk and the Associated General Contractors of America, includes results from 2,500 survey respondents at construction firms. The biggest finding this year is that the labour shortage is consistent across the country, with only a slight dip to 77 percent reporting shortages in the Northeast. And although salaried worker positions were easier to fill than hourly positions, 60% of firms still reported difficulty hiring for these positions. In the joint AGC/Autodesk press conference on the report, chief AGC economist
Ken Simonson said that these shortages were “significant and widespread.”
Not all of the report’s news is grim. Construction employment went up in 281 out of 358 metropolitan areas that the association tracks in the last year, according to a new analysis of federal construction employment data released at the same time. These workers are being well-compensated, with 62 percent of firms reporting increasing their base salary and 24 percent reporting that they’ve improved employee benefits. There’s also good news for anyone following the construction industry’s slow path to modernization; 25 percent of firms say they’re increasing their use of labor-saving equipment like robots and 3D printers, and an equal number report using virtual tools like BIM.
“With an increase in the percentage of construction firms having a hard time finding skilled craft workers, it’s evident that we need to reskill the future workforce,” said Sarah Hodges, senior director, construction business line at Autodesk. “Technology can help bridge this gap, and more firms are bringing training in-house to implement digital strategies such as BIM, to ease staffing challenges and train the next generation of industry professionals.”
But for anyone waiting for new buildings to go up, the news is not good. Almost half of all firms report that they’ve put higher prices on their bids, their current projects cost more, and their projects take longer to finish. 27 percent report they are putting longer completion times into their bids because of all this.
In light of these shortfalls, the organization also released a Workforce Development Plan of steps the government should take to reverse them, including doubling funding for career and technical education over five years and permitting more immigrants with construction skills to work in the U.S. Simonson believes that filling construction vacancies “will require active support from all levels of government."
Both Autodesk and the AGC recognize that the shortage exists in part because young people aren’t looking at construction as a career with possibilities for advancement. "We have done a great job over the years of convincing parents and educators that you have to go to college to have a good life and profession, and that's just not true," Robert Lee, the chairman of Virginia's AGC, said during the conference. To change that attitude, both the AGC and several smaller contractors are reaching out via training programs for career counsellors and direct advertising on social media.
The report’s stakeholders are optimistic about the possibilities that these programs might open, not just for the industry but for the whole country. “The best way to encourage continued economic growth, make it easier to rebuild aging infrastructure and place more young adults into high-paying careers is to address construction workforce shortages,” Simonson said.