The Expert Podcast

So, are you seeing this in your business or your career? In construction, the job market is still hot. If you're a builder or contractor, are you having trouble getting employees? If you are a trade person or a skilled construction worker, are you having more options for jobs? Are you making more money? One of the things that seems to be happening is that there is still a shortage of qualified workers. Construction firms added an average of 166,000 jobs each month—that’s above the 11,000 added monthly before the pandemic.

So, you know, 5,000 more over 11,000—that's like a 50% increase in jobs. There are currently half a million, 500,000 jobs that they can’t find people for. This demand is due to retiring workers who are not being replaced. Look, construction work is not something you can start tomorrow. You have to have some skills and experience. Yeah, you can start as a laborer and maybe just carry stuff around and do basic tasks, but the vast majority of people that work on a job site need to know how to do things like framing, insulation, roofing, plumbing, or electrical. Some even need a license. When those people retire and aren’t replaced, it creates a shortage that takes years and years to backfill.

You also have a change in the housing market. You might think there aren’t many houses being sold, and that’s true, but it’s because of supply and demand. Builders are trying to backfill the inventory to get more houses available for people to buy. Right now, there aren’t enough houses for people to buy, and the resale market is dry as a bone. People don’t want to sell their houses because they have a cheap two, three, or four percent mortgage, and they don’t want to sell it since their new house will come with a higher rate.

For builders, it’s tough because it’s hard to keep people. The CEO of a construction company said, “Our good people are constantly being recruited, sometimes for a little bit more money, sometimes for a lot more money.” So, if you are an employer and you have great people, you're going to find that other companies are trying to steal your employees, which makes it hard to plan for your construction jobs and your workflow.

If you are in the trades or a contractor or a builder, or if you run a company, let us know in the comments what's happening in your jurisdiction and how this shortage of construction employment is affecting your income or the workflow of your company.