{"id":440,"date":"2019-09-24T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/?p=440"},"modified":"2019-09-24T17:01:29","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T17:01:29","slug":"worker-shortage-hitting-all-sides-of-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/2019\/09\/24\/worker-shortage-hitting-all-sides-of-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Worker shortage hitting all sides of industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Worker shortage hitting all sides of industry<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By KAREN SCHWARTZ
\nAssociated Press<\/em><\/p>\n

Students train at The Home Depot Foundation and HBI\u2019s Ft. Stewart Program on a job site in Ft. Stewart, Georgia. The Home Depot Foundation announced last year that it was committing $50 million to skilled trades training with places to attract 20,000 people by 2028. (Julia Fenner\/Leggybird Photography\/The Home Depot via AP)<\/p><\/div>\n

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) \u2014 Lynn Osborne has been remodeling two homes. They are different styles, in different states, with different contractors. But there has been one constant: delays due to a shortage of skilled labor.<\/p>\n

The two-year remodel of her primary home in Fort Collins, Colorado, was to update and upgrade the \u201990s house, and it included a small extension. It was completed last year, except for the landscaping, which is still under way.<\/p>\n

That general contractor relied heavily on subcontractors, she said, and sometimes they wouldn\u2019t show, or would arrive days late, or did shoddy work and were fired.<\/p>\n

Her remodel of an old family beach retreat in New England took a Sears kit home down to the studs. The completion date was June 2018, but it\u2019s still not done because the contractor, who has been doing most of the work himself, is stretched and inattentive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d say, \u2018I\u2019ll be out there next week,\u2019 and next week would turn into next month, and next month would be six months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Current estimates indicate there are about 300,000 unfilled jobs in the construction industry, and the industry is expected to need an additional 747,000 workers by 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n

An August survey of nearly 375 members of the National Kitchen and Bath Association found that almost two-thirds of the respondents said they had difficulties hiring skilled workers in the previous year, and nearly 70 percent felt the problem had gotten worse since 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor shortages have impacted start dates and completion dates on construction and renovation projects, with NKBA members citing delays on 30 percent of jobs,\u201d said Bill Darcy, chief executive officer of the trade association.<\/p>\n

A look at 15 different trades found shortages in them all, Darcy said in a telephone interview from NKBA headquarters in Hackettstown, New Jersey. And as with previous years, he said, one of the greatest needs was for carpenters, who do rough-in work and framing, and finish carpenters, who hang cabinets, do millwork, flooring and install molding.<\/p>\n

The seeds of the current labor shortage were planted during the Great Recession, when a lack of construction jobs prompted many workers to leave the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot enough of them have returned to help us close the gap,\u201d Darcy said.<\/p>\n

Compounding the problem is the graying of the remaining workforce, with the median age for a construction worker at 42.5 years, according to January figures from the Labor Bureau. It\u2019s estimated that for every five workers retiring from the industry, only one is entering it, said Silvia Lattoz, Governance and Global Relations Senior Manager at NKBA.<\/p>\n

Younger people aren\u2019t interested in construction careers because they think the jobs don\u2019t pay well, are too dirty or physically demanding, or mistakenly think the jobs don\u2019t use much technology, Lattoz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely some kind of stigma tied to this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Players in the industry are ramping up efforts to address the impending crisis, launching incentives to try to recruit new workers, especially young people, to the trades.<\/p>\n

The Home Depot Foundation announced last year it was committing $50 million to skilled trades training, with plans to attract 20,000 people by 2028.
\n\u201cWe want to bring shop class back, from coast to coast,\u201d Shannon Gerber, executive director of the foundation, said in a release. The program focuses on supporting veterans, as well as underserved high schools.<\/p>\n

Lowe\u2019s last year started offering employees tuition and other incentives to train for jobs such as carpentry, plumbing, and appliance repair. More than 1,350 associates were enrolled in the Track to the Trades program this spring, Lowe\u2019s spokeswoman Jennifer L. Weber said.<\/p>\n

In April, Lowe\u2019s and 60 of its suppliers and partners debuted a new program called Generation T, an online marketplace for jobs, apprenticeships and education programs in construction. It\u2019s also on Twitter and Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t fill the existing skilled trade gap, our businesses, homes and communities will suffer,\u201d Weber said.<\/p>\n

The National Association of Home Builders, meanwhile, sponsors student chapters in high schools and colleges. The clubs currently have more than 4,500 members.<\/p>\n

The NAHB also supports immigration reform. Foreign-born workers were twice as likely to be employed in construction last year as workers born in the United States, according to the Department of Labor.<\/p>\n

Legislation pending in Congress would try to ease the construction worker shortage by establishing a visa system to bring in more foreign laborers. Employers would have to prove they couldn\u2019t find U.S. workers, and would have to pay fair wages based on local rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilling our workforce needs is a key component to boosting our workforce and our economy,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, Republican of Pennsylvania, a sponsor.<\/p>\n

For a while at least, homeowners and home builders need to resign themselves to the fact that it will likely be harder to get work done, at least for a while.<\/p>\n

Home Depot, for instance, said this year it was eliminating the service it had been offering that hired third-party contractors to install roofing, siding, insulation and gutters.<\/p>\n

Projects are also likely to get more expensive, as nearly 60 percent of respondents in the NKBA survey said the shortage was affecting labor costs.
\nOsborne\u2019s husband previously worked in the construction industry, but even so, she said, they suffered sticker shock when it came to their renovations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that market right now,\u201d she said. \u201cYou want something done and they throw out a big number, and I guess it\u2019s a matter of, \u2018How badly do you want it done and how soon?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Worker shortage hitting all sides of industry By KAREN SCHWARTZ Associated Press FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) \u2014 Lynn Osborne has been remodeling two homes. They are different styles, in different states, with different contractors. But there has been one constant: delays due to a shortage of skilled labor. The two-year remodel of her primary home …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18615],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}