While elected officials and leaders from the construction and industrial sectors continue to assess the extent of damage along the Texas coast from Hurricane Harvey, they know this much already: The storm, which dumped upwards of 50 inches of rain on east Texas two weeks ago, will cause a labor shortage that is likely to negatively impact Louisiana’s industrial construction sector.
“From a Louisiana perspective, especially over in Lake Charles, they’re concerned about the impact on construction,” says Greg Bowser, president of the Louisiana Chemical Association and the Louisiana Chemical Industry Alliance. “You’re going to have a drain on the workforce and we’re going to feel that here.”
The pending workforce shortage comes as Louisiana is already dealing with a lack of skilled workers to fill construction jobs, particularly on major industrial sites like the Sasol chemical complex underway near Lake Charles.
The Houston area, too, was already grappling with a tight labor market. Now, that shortage is expected to get worse. The Wall Street Journal reports as many as 20,000 workers could be needed to rebuild homes alone, which, in turn, is expected to drive up construction costs.
Bowser, who has been participating in regular conference calls with trade associations along the Gulf Coast since Harvey struck, says the update from this morning’s call focused on the pending workforce shortage. He says there are still many unknowns because so many plants and service companies have not been able to get their employees back to work yet.
“The big concern right now is for the employees—being able to get them back to work,” he says. “They just don’t know when they’ll be able to get everybody back. Some of the employees still had water in their homes as recently as last week.”
Local industrial contractors like Turner Industries—which has facilities in Houston and Beaumont and is doing work in Port Arthur—have already seen some of its craft workers leave to pursue higher pay rebuilding flood-damaged structures.
Will that pose a longterm problem for the company?
“We’re still trying to assess whether that will divert workforce away from us,” says Turner Industries Chairman and CEO Roland Toups, who notes that devastation from Hurricane Irma in Florida will only exacerbate the problem. “Everybody is still in play-it-by-ear assessment mode.”
—Stephanie Riegel
