2025 Construction Outlook: William Textor

Textor’s 2025 Projection:

We see a strong and vibrant construction industry moving into 2025. I would anticipate that we would continue to see growth in public sector work, but in 2025 to see quite a bit of private sector growth if interest rates continue to decline.

Nationwide growth in the construction field is anticipated for 2025. Is that something we are expecting to see here locally?
We anticipate construction to see continued growth in 2025. With new construction projects at (Missouri State University) and Springfield Public Schools, the Springfield Art Museum, as well as many private sector projects and the Silver Dollar City projects that are coming up, we see the potential for much growth in the commercial sector.

How is inflation affecting construction work, due to the increase in cost of materials and expenses for those hiring construction professionals?
We’ve continued to see increasing and unstable material prices and availability. These things have to be taken into account when bidding construction work, and we see that trend continuing throughout 2025. We also see price increases based on supply and demand. It’s incredibly hard to bid right now, especially long-term commercial projects such as a two-year project, if you don’t know where labor rates are going to be a year from now or where material rates are going to be a year from now. A lot of times you can lock in pricing for a period. In a lot of the bids that we do, for instance, we’ll talk to the concrete companies and they will tell us, for example, they are expecting an $8 increase in cement, so we incorporate that type of thing into our bid because, depending on the type of work, you can’t always buy the materials in advance.

What are you seeing as far as employment in the construction fields? What do you anticipate for 2025?
We have seen the demand for construction jobs increase every year, with fewer and fewer people pursuing the trades, which leads to increased wages and higher demand for good employees. If you want a job in construction, you can find one, and that will be the case for the foreseeable future. We see the demand for apprenticeships and employee training continue to grow.

How do those apprenticeships work?
Advanced Concrete Technology is currently in our third year with an apprenticeship for concrete workers that we do through a partnership with Donco3 for concrete workers. We coordinate through (Ozark Technical Community College’s) skilled trade apprenticeship program. Some construction jobs are learned in a school environment, but many are learned through training. As the president of the of Springfield Contractor’s Association, I represent subcontractors, suppliers, associates and general contractors who operate both unions and nonunion companies. There’s a lot of different affiliations and requirements that are in that.

Do many construction companies locally use programs like that?
I think a push has to come from the contractors. Most of the contractors say they’ve got 30 to 50 employees, and it’s hard to put four or five students per year in a program that’s going to be a three-year program for training. Because if they’re out one day a week, that really limits your ability. That’s why we partnered with Donco3 and we built this program for concrete workers. It’s hard for one company to build an apprenticeship program. I know of some that have some; Branco has a very successful one. I think there’s several of them that have successful apprenticeship programs.