By FATIMA HUSSEIN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is returning to southwest Wisconsin to make good on his promise to provide new investments in rural electrification and other infrastructure improvements.

Biden will be in Westby on Thursday to announce $7.3 billion in investments for 16 cooperatives that will provide electricity for rural areas across 23 states. The intent is to bring down the cost of badly needed internet connections in hard-to-reach areas.

Funding for the project comes from the Democrats’ , signed into law in August 2022 and passed in Congress along party lines. The law invests roughly $13 billion in rural electrification across multiple programs and will create 4,500 permanent jobs and 16,000 construction jobs, according to the White House.

The administration calls it the largest investment in rural electrification since the New Deal in the 1930s.

Democrats consider Wisconsin to be one of the must-win states in November’s presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden won the state in 2020 by about 20,000 votes, flipping Wisconsin to the Democratic column after Trump narrowly won it in 2016.

And Thursday’s trip will be a return to a state that Biden visited early in his presidency. Then, he made a promise to provide, among other , better internet to rural areas.

“It isn’t a luxury; it’s now a necessity, like water and electricity,” Biden said at the La Crosse Municipal Transit Utility in June 2021. “And this deal would provide for it for everyone, while bringing down the cost of internet service across the board.”

White House deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian told reporters Wednesday that when the president returns to Wisconsin, “he will have delivered on so many of those promises.”

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National contractors came out with a recent survey that most construction companies are having a hard time finding craft workers and called on the federal government to invest in workforce development to bridge the gap.

Currently, contractors across the country are looking for more workers and are having difficulty filling job openings, according to a by the Associated General Contractors of America and human resources company Arcoro.

The association reported that 94 percent of respondents to a recent survey said they have openings for craft workers and 85 percent have openings for salaried workers.

Around a third of contractors working in the building construction, highway, federal and heavy and utility infrastructure subsectors reported fallen headcounts in the past year. AGC officials pointed to federal education, training and immigration policies as the culprit for shortages, which hindered the country’s ability to build infrastructure and construction programs.

“The most likely path to addressing construction workforce shortages is for the federal government to adopt better workforce policies,” said Jeff Shoaf, the chief executive officer of AGC, in a virtual news conference. “Federal officials need to support, instead of undermine, our national infrastructure and economic development policies,” he added.

Construction labor market mixed across the West

Contractors in the west reported slightly less trouble filling jobs than the nation as a whole. Of respondents, 52 percent reported project delays due to worker shortages. More than half — 51 percent — said they had grown their workforce in the past 12 months. An additional 35 percent reported fewer employees, and 14 percent reported no change.

Looking ahead, 70 percent of contractors said they expected to add headcount, 21 percent expected no change and 9 percent were looking to reduce their firm’s headcount.

Contractors reported the most trouble filling jobs for estimators (80 percent), superintendents (79 percent) and project managers/supervisors (78 percent).

AGC Oregon-Columbia Chapter officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The AGC-Arcoro survey does not break out separate results for Oregon. But in Washington, contractors were more likely to say they have reduced headcount (40 percent), with only 36 percent adding headcount and 24 percent seeing no change.

A lower number than in the nation as a whole — only 59 percent — expected to add headcount in Washington, while 31 percent expected no change and 10 percent looked to reduce headcount.

91��Ƶ construction reporter Ethan Duran also contributed to this report.

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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s unemployment rate for August was 3.8 percent, the lowest unemployment rate since comparable records began 42 years ago.

The Oregon Employment Department reported Tuesday that the state’s unemployment rate is just below the national unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.

The number of unemployed people in August dropped to 80,500, down from 88,000 a year ago.

Many people entering the labor force are getting snapped up by employers in a very tight job market.
Oregon’s nonfarm payroll employment grew by 900 jobs in August, following a revised gain of 3,400 jobs in July.

Those jobs were in construction, which added 800 jobs, and trade, which added 800 jobs in wholesale trade and 700 jobs in retail trade.

The leisure and hospitality industries lost 1,100 jobs and government lost 600 jobs.

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Manufacturing is on an upturn in Oregon. Vigor Industrial and Oregon Iron Works, an Oregon business icon, have merged. A huge, world-class drydock is now in Portland. Companies like Erickson Air Crane are building heavy lift helicopters in Oregon. In Redmond a company has set up an operation to build aerial tankers to help deal with the forest fire problem. Precision Castparts is on a roll and Greenbrier has a great backlog. There are many other great stories as well.

These companies are building real, tangible items – things you can touch and see. But they are experiencing a labor problem: insufficient skilled Oregonians who can do the work. So, in some cases they end up training employees in the basic skills required of metal workers and other trades. That is a drag not only on their bottom line, but also their production.

It seems that our public schools are not taking this game-changing shift in the Oregon economy to heart. Vocational programs are still getting short shrift.

Recently, a Portland Public Schools high school set up a vocational program for the culinary arts. Three hundred students signed up, but they needed to raise their own money to make it work.

The local public education industry seems to be bent on preparing kids only for further institutional education at costs that must be borne by the individual. But as we are now finding out, these costs are not sustainable. Students are voting with their feet, and young Oregonians are not obtaining completion certificates.

When the construction industry determined that more skill building was needed, professionals first went to public education, but were turned down. As a result they set up their own academy. Even a dismal graduation rate does not seem to be enough to redirect the inertia on North Dixon Street.

All Oregonians lose. Those who do graduate from high school cannot get jobs without additional training because they have no real job skills. Many don’t see that through and end up at minimum wage jobs or worse and become part of the social welfare bureaucracy.

But aside from refocusing public schools on educating our young people with job skills, Oregon needs to rediscover manufacturing jobs. It is clear that the economy is there to support this attitude. Oregon needs to convince its young people that these jobs are good jobs and a great way to launch a career. Life is not all about peering into a computer screen.

Oregon also must hustle and invest in its infrastructure to meet this manufacturing uptick. In this year’s legislative session HB 4111 set up a commission to look at new strategies for developing infrastructure. The first meeting has yet to take place.

Business is beginning to feel the constraints of this second-class infrastructure, be it delays receiving raw materials, delays delivering to customers or delayed employee arrivals to workplaces.

We no longer build the world’s greatest projects; they are in China or elsewhere. This, however, might just be the moment that a critical mass comes to Oregon’s infrastructure table.

Christian Steinbrecher is president of Columbia River Port Engineers Inc. and the immediate past president of the Oregon Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is the editor of ASCE Oregon’s Report Card on Oregon’s Infrastructure. Contact him at cfs@carpengrs@.com.

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Following a plateau in construction hiring, activity by residential builders slowed slightly in June.

The number of building permits issued to home builders nationwide in June decreased 3.7 percent over the month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 755,000 permits. June’s decrease followed a nearly 8 percent monthly increase in May. Residential construction activity is still much higher than it was a year ago, however, increasing 19.3 percent from June 2011.

Housing starts were on the rise, though, increasing 6.9 percent over May to 760,000, and 23.6 percent over June 2011. That could be a positive sign for the industry despite the slowdown in building permit activity. Likewise, the number of single-family housing starts increased 4.7 percent over May to 539,000.

Privately owned housing completions also increased slightly, rising 2.6 percent from May, and 7.2 percent from June 2011 to 622,000. Single-family housing completions increased 1.3 percent over May to 470,000 homes.

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Oregon’s construction industry saw minimal job growth in June as the state’s overall unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged.

Oregon’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in June rose 0.1 point over May to 8.5 percent, according to the most recent employment report released today by the Oregon Employment Department. That’s down from a rate of 9.6 percent a year ago.

Overall, seasonally adjusted total nonfarm payroll employment grew by 1,700 jobs with the trade, transportation and utilities industry (up 1,700), and the manufacturing industry (up 900) leading the charge. According to the employment department, June was the fourth consecutive month that seasonally adjusted payroll employment has grown, meaning more jobs were added than economists expected.

The construction industry, by contrast, added 2,700 jobs, which was the anticipated seasonal movement for the industry and so was not statistically significant.

The employment department also upwardly revised May’s figures to show a gain of 7,600 jobs, and since March, the state has added 13,600 jobs. In June, 172,489 people remained unemployed in Oregon.

Meanwhile, a concurrent June survey by the National Association of Home Builders shed light on the construction market. Steve Melman, director of economic services for the NAHB, said 41 percent of builders plan to hire more skilled workers in the next 12 months, while 59 percent do not.

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In 2009, Portland’s Bureau of Development Services, hit hard by the recession, laid off about 150 employees – approximately half of its workforce.

But over the next three months, the city’s permitting and inspection agency plans to bring back some former staffers, by making seven recently added temporary positions permanent and creating 11.5 other positions. BDS spokesman Ross Caron said it’s a positive step, but mostly one that will allow the bureau to simply keep pace with demand and not significantly accelerate provision of services.

“Our projection is that the workload will increase slowly over the next fiscal year,” Caron said.

Over the past two years, the BDS has had to scale back its expectations of the number of services it can deliver and how quickly it can do so.

For inspections, the city has tried to maintain a high level of responsiveness, though its previous goal of responding to 98 percent of inspection requests within 24 hours has been scrapped for now. The new goal is to respond to 90 percent of those requests within 24 hours, which Caron says is good, “given all that’s taken place.”

When the bureau cut positions in 2009, contractors were concerned about long delays in inspections from the bureau, according to John Killin, executive director of the Independent Electrical Contractors of Oregon.

“Things have improved,” he said. “Things are still delayed, but it’s a lot better. They’re on the road toward where they need to be.”

The BDS has made some changes to increase efficiency. It now mandates that contractors bundle requests for electrical and mechanical inspections so they can be performed on one visit. Other adjustments were more drastic.

“There are some services that we aren’t providing any longer. We put our focus on the core mission services,” Caron said.

The bureau has not been able to respond to entire categories of code enforcement complaints. But Portland City Council recently approved an allocation of general fund money to hire three enforcement staffers.

The remainder of the new BDS positions will be funded through fee revenues, which are projected to increase with more construction activity and because of higher rates recently approved by City Council. Most permitting fees went up by 8 percent, effective July 1.

Some of the new, unionized positions, such as building inspectors, will be filled by the same people who were laid off in 2009.

Prior to the layoffs, Mark Bello, then president of the City of Portland Professional Employees Association, the city’s staff union, called on BDS leadership to explore alternatives. COPPEA’s present president, Gerry Verhoef, said the union understands that those decisions were difficult.

“There were both good and bad decisions made,” Verhoef said. “As the funding for the positions held within BDS are based on revenues received from the building industry, it was inevitable that some positions would be lost.

“COPPEA would love to see everyone return, but that may take a little time.”

The bureau has approval from council to add five more fee-funded positions, but Caron said there are no plans to rehire personnel “until we know more about what the economy‘s doing.”

The BDS also is in the process of installing a new computer system. It is being paid for via a $6.6 million loan from the city’s general fund; the loan must be repaid in the next two years through BDS fee revenues.

Caron said the new computer system is expected to create efficiencies so that the BDS can do more with fewer people.

“The goal is to (eventually) provide as high a level of service as we did pre-recession,” Caron said.

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More contractors in Oregon plan to lay off workers in 2011, but overall the economic picture for the embattled industry seems to be improving, according .

Of the Oregon companies that responded to a questionnaire, 29 percent plan to lay off workers, 18 percent plan to add workers and 53 percent plan no changes to their workforce in 2011.

That’s not all bad news, however, because the expanding companies in that group plan to add an average of 19 employees each, whereas the shrinking companies plan to lay off an average of six employees each.

The numbers are also an improvement over 2010, when 16 percent of the respondents added an average of three employees and 66 percent laid off an average of 18 employees each in the state.

The national numbers anticipated for 2011 also seem to indicate an improving economy. Of national respondents, 27 percent said they plan to add an average of 23 employees, while 20 percent said they plan to lay off an average of 16 employees.

Still, profit margins remain small. About 68 percent of the Oregon respondents reported adjusting bids for smaller profits in 2010, and 21 percent said they expected those profits to shrink even more in 2011.

In 2010, 11 percent reported adjusting bids for greater profits and 13 percent said profits were the same, and in 2011, 16 percent said they expected to increase profits, and 58 percent said they expected profits to remain steady.

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Related

Engineers look forward to a better 2011

The American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index – a leading indicator of the industry’s economic health – in November 2010 reached its highest point since late 2007. But Oregon architects nevertheless expect 2011 to be another tough year.

With the state facing a budget crunch, school districts encountering similar circumstances and other public money pools drying up, architects don’t expect this year to yield the flood of public work that sustained many firms through 2010. Instead, firms may find themselves in fierce competition to design renovations, tenant improvements and other small projects that are beginning to reappear in the private sector, according to Tim Eddy, principal at Hennebery Eddy Architects.

Oregon faces a $3.5 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, making capital project funding unlikely. Portland Public Schools in May will go to voters with a $548 million construction bond; however, in November 2010, only one of five proposed school-bond measures around the state was approved by voters.

“Based on the state budget and all public budgets, we expect the public side of things to slow down in 2011,” Eddy said. “But private institutions are starting to think about smaller projects. We expect things to continue to pick up, but it’s still very slow.”

Even universities, which in 2010 solicited designs for many new residence halls, plan to restrict their spending in 2011, according to Cameron Hyde, a principal with Soderstrom Architects.

“Our public university clients don’t seem to have any money,” Hyde said. “The Legislature hasn’t figured out how to fund education and can barely keep services in place. The first thing to go could be capital improvement projects, unless they start printing money.”

The ABI, however, recently hit 52 – and any number over 50 indicates an increase in billings. A year earlier, it was at 46.1.

LRS Architects rehired five people in 2010, principal Steve Mileham said. He attributed the company’s success in 2010 to diversity of project types. Also, LRS three years ago began operating out of its Shanghai office.

“We’re doing a 1.2-million-square-foot project in Shanghai that will be a convention center and office,” Mileham said. “Having that office abroad has been helpful. It’s gotten us large projects that haven’t been available here.”

In Oregon, private work, though small in scale, was steady throughout 2010, Eddy said. His firm landed several renovation projects, including a revamp of the Spalding Building in downtown Portland and a renovation of a West End retail space for a new bike shop. Similarly, DECA Inc. also had steady work in 2010 performing storefront renovations and improvements at private clubs, according to firm principal Sallee Humphrey.

“There have been projects, but they’ve been smaller,” Humphrey said. “I think firms who have downsized are at the point where there are enough small projects coming in to sustain the staff they have. When bigger projects let loose, then hopefully people will start to hire back.”

Though more small projects may be available, competition is still fierce, Hyde said. He has seen other architecture firms quoting projects at-cost or less simply to land work. And even then, projects may not move forward for years, Hyde said.

“These projects are taking three or more years just to break ground,” Hyde said. “It’s almost as much work getting the job as doing the job. I hope it’s not the new way of doing business. But until someone shows us otherwise, this is how it is.”

Humphrey said her firm’s clients still are having trouble securing construction loans for projects. Lending practices, she said, will determine whether Oregon’s architecture industry will continue to recover.

“My hope is that 2011 will be better,” Humphrey said. “It has a lot to do with banks loosening up the money. People need to feel confident about investing again, and I don’t know when that will be.”

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