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A recent workforce study focusing on the construction industry produced results that show women and minorities still have much room for improvement in terms of participation.

The Metro Portland Construction Career Pathways Project was commissioned by Metro and carried out by a team of industry professionals, academics, economists and many others over the past year. Results show that a concerted, collaborative, regionally organized effort is necessary to make substantial headway toward greater percentages of women and people of color participating in the trades.

There’s a lot of interest in increasing the number of women and people of color in construction, said report project manager Kelly Haines of Worksystems Inc.

鈥淭he chart at the very end of the report is illustrative that it really is going to take everybody,鈥� she said. 鈥淧ublic agencies do play a role, and the culture needs to change among contractors and how people feel when they go to work every day. So it’s going to be a collective effort at the regional level to really move the needle. There’s not really a simple answer.鈥�

Tiffany Thompson is the director of advocacy for Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., one of the report’s collaborating organizations. Companies, unions and contractors should not be left to their own devices in this regard, she said.

鈥淲e think that it’s better where there’s a collective fund and a regional effort toward recruitment 鈥� rather than leaving it to the individual,鈥� she said.

Workforce retention is also highlighted in the report, which states that a concerted effort must be made before women and minority tradespeople are able to operate in a workplace culture in which they do not feel discriminated against.

The report, released earlier this month, shows that women account for just 4 percent of the roughly 23,000 workers in Oregon’s construction industry. Of that 23,000, 20 percent are minorities 鈥� mostly Hispanics; blacks and Asians remain underrepresented in the trades, according to findings.

The team examined 81 public-sector building projects scheduled for construction between 2017 and 2021 in order to determine the percentages of women and minorities working in the trades. Some of the projects have stated apprentice and workforce diversity goals 鈥� typically 20 percent apprentices, 25 percent minorities and 14 percent women. Those goals, if applied across all 81 projects, puts five-year workforce demand at 2,700 new apprentices, 3,400 minorities and 1,900 women.

Portland’s 2016 employment statistics, however, show that without improvement, the industry would fall short by 445 apprentices, 1,074 minorities and 1,416 women over the next five years.

When it comes to women in the industry nationally, U.S. Department of Labor figures show that the effects of the Great Recession continue to linger; the total number of women employed in all facets of construction in 2016 was 939,000. However, that is 140,000 fewer than in 2005. The number of women in 鈥減roduction occupations鈥� is barely 200,000 nationally.

鈥淚 think one of the challenges,鈥� Thompson said, 鈥渋s figuring out in the longer term how to get a high enough percentage of women in the workforce to weather those things.鈥�

When it comes to recruiting people of color and women into the trades, one of the biggest barriers identified by the report is the lack of information available to youth about the many and varied career prospects in construction. It recommends an effort, likely beginning at the state level by the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), to inform educators and students within the public school system of the industry opportunities available to young people.

Further, existing apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs should be better funded, preferably at the state level, so they can continue to grow, the report states.

鈥淭o not know there’s this alternative means you get into school debt,鈥� Haines said. 鈥淲hat we’re hearing from both contractors and apprenticeship programs is that they want better marketing. They want people to know about them.鈥�

And when it comes to worker retention, the report notes that a history of overt racist and sexist policies in the trades has allowed persistence of jobsite cultures that adversely affect women and minorities. Further, women and minorities also tend to receive fewer training and mentorship opportunities, and the unsteady flow of work in construction often impacts them the hardest because they frequently lack of social support structures, according to the report.

Despite the challenges involved, Thompson and others who crafted the study are hopeful that efforts now under way will lead to meaningful changes.

鈥淭here are all kinds of things that give me hope,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e’re seeing a shift in the industry, and our partners in the construction industry are reaching out to us and saying, 鈥榃e want more women.’ And I think there’s a lot more conversation in construction, not just because of the #MeToo movement, but in the industry in general about how do we retain women and how do we keep a respectful workplace.鈥�