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A hot real estate market on Oregon’s coast has boosted employment while creating a labor shortage in the coastal building industry that has left contractors there struggling to meet demand.

“Labor is just a horrible problem,” said Darryl Bishop, owner of McIntosh Roofing, Heating and Sheet Metal Inc. in Tillamook. “I could double my volume over night if I had the right people. We’re just about to start May, and I’m booked into December.”

Increasing demand for new home construction on the coast has led to an 11 percent rise in the number of construction jobs over the last year in Clatsop, Tillamook, Lincoln, Coos, and Curry counties, according to Oregon Employment Department data.

At the same time, according to a recent Employment Department survey of regional offices, businesses across the state are having difficulty filling positions in health care, transportation and construction.

Construction-related positions proved hardest to fill in Southern Oregon and along the Oregon Coast.

“A lot of the jobs we have (posted) for construction work have been open for six months or longer,” said Will Summers, a work force analyst with the state’s Employment Department for Linn, Benton, and Lincoln counties. “This would be true for almost any of the jobs we have in construction.”

Over the past six months, Summers said, his office has posted 112 job openings for carpenters that have not been filled. Only 30 of those positions have been open for less than six months.

Lower wages, more rain spur employment drought

“Good carpenters and the more skilled people are all busy,” said Bob Vandervelden, owner of Robert Vandervelden Construction and vice president of the Home Builders Association in Coos Bay. “A lot of builders are just making do – they’re using subs more and just everybody’s booked up tight.

“Some people are keeping up; I don’t know how,” he said. “They’re just making full use of everybody that they can.”

In an industry in which the labor supply is already grappling with an aging work force, Oregon’s coastal contractors, especially, are feeling the crunch.

“There’s just no real qualified journeymen carpenters available in this area,” said Pete Zyta, president of Zyta Construction in Coos Bay. “The younger people are moving to the bigger metropolitan areas … and we’re turning more work down then we ever have, only because we can’t find qualified help.”

The coast’s lower wages, shortage of affordable housing and longer rainy season make attracting new workers to the market difficult, said Guy Tauer, a regional economist with the state Employment Department for Coos, Curry, Jackson and Josephine counties.

Lacking housing, young workers head for cities

Up and down the coast, counties have witnessed a dramatic surge in the number of building permits issued for single-family houses. Coos Bay saw the largest growth with a 63 percent increase in permits issued in 2005, according to the state. Manzanita, Seaside, and Yachats also experienced large increases in the number of permits issued last year.

Yet U.S. census occupancy data indicate that about 30 percent of coastal homes are vacation and rental properties.

“That limits the amount of housing available to (workers),” Summers said.

And although communities such as Coos Bay have slightly increased population, they have seen an exodus of young workers, pulled by higher wages and more diverse employment opportunities, to urban areas.

Carpenters statewide earn an average hourly wage of $18.19. By comparison, carpenters in the Portland area earn about $20.35, while those in Coos and Curry counties earn an average of $16.50 per hour.

“Economics tell you the wage should go up and stop that shortage,” said Mike Wilson, regional work force analyst in Coos and Curry counties. In larger communities, “if you raised wages, you might be able to attract more workers from other industries. (On the coast) it’s not really that simple.”

Coastal contractors are calling for more training facilities and increased education funding for the construction trades to help increase the supply of skilled workers in small communities over the long term.

“There’s no real trade schools anymore, and they’ve taken most of the shop classes out of schools,” Zyta said. “The industry is finding it hard to bring in people in their trades, and in the long run that means we just do fewer projects.”