An AGC survey showed 70 percent of the contractors polled in Washington were having trouble hiring craft workers. Workers in demand include carpenters, cement masons and truck drivers. Craft worker shortages are the most severe in the Midwest, where 77 percent of contractors are having a hard time filling those positions.
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When it comes to salaried positions, Hawaii firms reported having a harder time than their US counterparts finding project managers and supervisors.
In a news release, Stephen Sandherr, CEO for the Associated General Contractors, said economic growth is feeding new growth in construction nationwide and exposing gaps in the workforce pipeline.
Almost half (47 percent) said they were losing workers to other construction firms; 42 percent noted crews were bolting for jobs in other industries.
About 71 percent of contractors in the South said they are looking to hire hourly craft personnel because of expanding business. And 61 percent said it will continue to be hard hiring for salaried positions compared to last year’s 37 percent.
Only 16 Louisiana contractors responded to the survey, not almost enough to draw larger conclusions about the state’s workforce. The number is based on responses from only seven Hawaii firms, out of about 1,500 that took part nationally.
Despite the 10% decline in firms having difficulty finding craft workers between 2015 and 2016, the 69% figure still represents a majority of the industry, and the AGC once again called on states and the federal government to promote technical training at the middle and high school levels.
What jobs are in demand?
Companies also don’t see any easing of the worker shortage, according to the survey, with 73 percent saying they expect the difficulty in hiring people to stay the same over the next 12 months and 18 percent saying they expect it to get worse.
Hawaii’s union-friendly environment also showed in the survey, with five of the seven companies saying they always operate as a union contractor versus only a quarter of US firms that do. The problem is almost as bad in the South, where 74 percent of contractors say they are suffering severe labor shortages, and in the West, where 71 percent are experiencing similar problems.
But even if the next administration and Congress were to move ahead with public works spending rivaling President Eisenhower’s interstate highway construction program launched in 1956, there may not be a large enough labor pool to meet the challenge, according to a new study. That’s down from last year’s survey which found 73 percent of responding firms struggling to fill that position.
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Two-thirds of Utah contractors said they raised pay in the past year, while also offering bonuses, better benefits and other incentives.
