Labor is at the heart of residential construction. Master suites don’t frame themselves, nails stay in the gun, and kitchens aren’t plumbed without a trained and reliable workforce making it all happen. Although labor is one of the most important elements of the construction, it is among the hardest to control. The industry lost more than 40% — or 2.3 million members — of its workforce from April 2006 to January 2011. What’s more, six in 10 construction workers who lost their jobs during the recession went to work in another sector or left the job market entirely by 2013, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Across the U.S., the construction industry is anything but uniform. In this series, the Construction Dive team sheds light on these differences — speaking with industry leaders from each state to discuss the business conditions impacting their market.
“They’re not coming back,” said David Piper, vice president of purchasing and architecture at national homebuilder Taylor Morrison. “Many of these jobs are [a] younger man’s work, and in the years since the recession, a lot of these guys have aged out of the industry and moved on to other professions.” According to a National Association of Home Builders analysis of BLS data, the construction industry set a cycle high of 225,000 open jobs in July 2016, the most since February 2007. Meanwhile, the share of builders reporting a shortage of key trades has risen from 21% in 2012 to 56% in 2016. And so, as demand returns, builders are finding the need to get creative to find new workers, including raising wages, supporting training programs, streamlining operations, and searching high and low for new workers. Broadening hiring horizons “We first started to really take notice of the labor shortage about 18 to 24 months ago,” said Tim O’Brien, president of Tim O’Brien Homes. His Wisconsin-based firm builds 160 homes per year in Milwaukee and 75 a year in Madison. “At first, we were able to work with it, but it has since become more and more difficult.” The shortage has hit O’Brien’s team hard, causing them to build fewer homes and take longer to put them up. “We missed some deliveries last year,” he said, “and we have had situations where foundations are back-filled and waiting for framers for as long as 30 to 45 days.” Above info cited from here Thinking outside the box Hybrid-FRAME brings benefits to whole team to help bridge the gap. We have created a system that assists, adds value, and strengthens the team as a whole and doesn’t compete or take away jobs. Order your first of many packages today. Start by sending us your plans HERE