Despite the high number of job openings in construction—due to individuals leaving the workforce and higher demand—and an increase in construction wages, many home builders are still struggling to find a sufficient number of workers. According to Marketplace, in addition to raising pay, some builders are offering signing and retention bonuses in an effort to keep workers on board, but are still facing situations where crews of workers don’t show up.
When one crew doesn’t show up, others can’t do their jobs, further slowing a process that’s already mired in supply chain delays. But these are temporary challenges on top of a more systemic problem: The construction workforce is aging.
“Those retiring folks walking out the door aren’t being replaced by the same amount of young people standing at the door, you know, wanting in,” said Wade Hiner, with Destiny Homes in Des Moines, Iowa. “I tell any student, ‘You want to talk to me about any sort of job opportunity in the trades? I’ll take that time,’ because honestly, it’s the biggest gap that we have in our industry right now. If we don’t get it fixed, we’re headed for trouble.”
Talking up construction jobs is one thing. Even better: Making the jobs themselves more appealing.
While construction wages are up 7% from a year ago, they should be even higher, said Ed Brady, president and CEO of the Home Builders Institute, a national nonprofit career training group. And wages alone aren’t enough.
“I think we need to really have a longer-term solution, and that is to bring people into the industry with a good career pathway, more stability, with benefits to be competitive in the marketplace,” he said.
