Louisiana construction firms are having a hard time filling the hourly craft positions that represent the bulk of the construction workforce, according to a report released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. This comes at a time when demand for construction workers is growing.
About 81% of Louisiana construction firms who participated in the survey report dealing with a qualified contract-worker shortage, a trend in line with the 80% of firms nationwide and 81% in the South reporting a similar shortage.
A possible explanation: The majority of participating statewide firms—65%—say the pipeline for supplying craft personnel is “poor,” a sentiment shared by Devon Overall, vice president of Coastal Bridge Company, who says the Baton Rouge labor market is, at best, lacking.
“You have people coming out of college who don’t know how to use a tape measure,” Overall says. “They could be taking shop classes in high school and schools should offer other practical classes at earlier ages.”
Still, Overall isn’t having a hard time hiring workers, saying most of his 300 employees are from surrounding parishes or living out-of-state.
In an effort to address the problem, construction companies across the country have started media marketing campaigns, workforce coalitions and partnerships with local high schools involving educator externships to recruit new workers.
Over the summer, numerous Capital Region teachers participated in a similar teacher externship program sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, though the focus was on STEM employment opportunities.
Also, 44% of the 26 Louisiana companies surveyed say they increased their base pay rate for hourly craft workers in the past year, while 26% say they did so for salaried workers. And 24% say their firm increased its portion of benefit contributions or employee benefits for hourly workers.
Nationally, AGC chief economist Ken Simonson, during a conference call, said his organization is pushing for the passage of immigration reform legislation that would make it easier for foreign laborers to work in the United States. Technology could also solve the talent gap, says Sarah Hodges, senior director of construction business line at Autodesk, in a prepared statement.
“More firms are bringing training in-house to implement digital strategies such as building information modeling, or BIM, to ease staffing challenges and train the next generation of industry professionals.”
