A recent article from Stateline.org digs into the numbers about the shortage of workers in the construction industry. It isn’t news, especially for those of us in the industry, but it is a seriously chronic issue. The US is short on construction workers and extremely short on people who want to be construction workers. Today’s average age of construction workers is high, and workforce recruitment efforts often net people who are completely unskilled or underskilled for the highest wages.

“An analysis released earlier this month by the Associated Builders and Contractors found that at the end of November there were about 459,000 job openings in the industry. The 5.4% job opening rate was the highest since 2000.”

Sequeira, R. (2024, January 24). The US needs homes. But first, it needs the workers to build them. Stateline.org. https://stateline.org/2024/01/24/the-us-needs-homes-but-first-it-needs-the-workers-to-build-them/

This equation drives up construction costs as fewer workers, especially in the licensed trades, means paying a higher price for their skills and longer wait times in getting them to the job site. Delays cost money. Significant money.

As the article states, a few states are stepping in to address the workforce crisis by funding apprenticeships and/or creating incentives to use companies that sign up for apprenticeship programs. The article also points to the stigma attached to entering the construction trades for young people.

The big push over the past few decades from governments and the education community has been to steer young people toward high-tech jobs. STEM programs abound in high schools and colleges. Former vocational schools, like in Oklahoma, were re-branded into “career technology” schools to feature their intentional shift away from promoting construction trades. No wonder we have a shortage of construction workers.

How do we fix it? It is about Makers

If you have ever watched a good trim carpenter, cabinet maker, brick mason, painter, or someone in one of the numerous other trades, you will realize that what they do is art. They are creatives, artists, and makers.

So, it is time for the construction trades to re-brand to appeal to younger workers. I think we have an enormous number of creatives in Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z. I think those creatives have little desire to sit in formal office spaces. I think we have creatives who want to be their own boss or lead their own crews. I think we have creatives who want to be entrepreneurs and who aren’t afraid of doing something different.

The technologies in the construction industry are evolving quickly. New innovations are making homebuilding and commercial construction more efficient while increasing the quality of the product. If we can connect our young generations of creatives to the opportunities within these spaces, we could easily solve our workforce problems.

Let’s rebrand.