Construction workers’ shortage felt locally

Qualified construction professionals are hard to find across the country as demand for work continues to rebound from the economic downturn, according to a survey by the Associated General Contractors of America.

This summer, the AGCA garnered 1,358 industry respondents and 86 percent say they have difficulty filling hourly trade or salaried professional positions. Nearly eight in 10 have trouble filling one of 21 listed hourly craft professional positions.

Local contractors say work volumes are up, but the industry has lost nearly half its workers since 2010. Kathy Baer, interim director of the Springfield Contractors Association, said she regularly hears finding good help isn’t easy in the post-recession market.

“I am not sure, with the companies I’ve seen, if the subs have enough people to bid the work. And if they have enough people to bid and get the work, I’m not sure if they have enough people to do the work,” said Baer, a 21-year SCA veteran.

The SCA has about 360 member companies, roughly flat with its pre-recession membership level, though turnover has been part of the business climate.

“We did lose companies in the downturn, but it was also an opportunity for people to branch out on their own,” she said.

Nationally, 73 percent of survey respondents said they need carpenters; 65 percent seek sheet metal installers; 63 percent want to hire concrete workers; and 52 percent of firms are having a difficult time filling salaried professional positions, especially project managers and supervisors.

At Springfield-based Nesbitt Construction Inc., the company hired four workers in recent months to meet project demand, bringing its total to 14. However, before the recession, the firm routinely employed 22-28 workers.

“Contractors are a little bit like boxers and football players, they don’t ever want to let you see them sweat,” said President Bill Nesbitt. “It is harder to find people right now. The reason is that things were so damn tough in ’10, ’11, ’12 and ’13 that a lot of people got out of the business.”

When times got tough, Nesbitt said the skilled craftworkers typically were kept or picked up quickly in the event of layoffs. The less-skilled workers either left the industry or were forced to find work on their own.

“If I laid off a three-man crew, and you got the lead man, or my foreman, on that crew, then you got a pretty good deal. If you got the No. 2 guy, you probably weren’t getting as good of a deal, but he was right there with the No. 1 guy doing the cuts and doing the things to put her together. If you got the No. 3 guy on a three-man crew, all he ever did was hold the board steady while the big boys put it where it was supposed to be,” Nesbitt said. “What happened is a lot of these young men, the No. 2s and 3s, were having a hard time supporting their families, so they started bidding themselves. And that didn’t go well.”

Nationally, 43 percent of firms have increased their reliance on subcontractors because of tight labor conditions, according to the AGCA survey. Additionally, 36 percent of firms report losing hourly craft professionals to other local contractors and 21 percent say they lost workers to other industries.

Locally, contractors are split on the shortage. MoDoCo Inc. employs only managers and supervisors and depends on subcontractors to provide the bulk of the labor. President Morris Dock hasn’t experienced any shortages that have held up work.

“We’ve had a job in Columbia, and we had a hard time getting subs on the job and on time,” Dock said of a strip-center project. “What we’re dealing with right now is that they can’t give you enough people in a few cases, but they’ve had qualified people.

“I’m not seeing that many subs say, ‘I need to hire.’ I hear one or two saying, ‘I need to pick up another guy.’”

Gary Hill, president of Springfield-based drywall subcontractor HBC Inc., believes worker shortages are a reality, but slow growth in project demand in recent years has made the issue manageable.

“We want to be careful to not overload our capabilities. We’re always concerned about what labor is going to be available when a job starts,” he said. “There are a few opportunities we probably did not pursue because of concerns of labor availability, but by the same token, we are busier than we’ve ever been.”

Hill projects 2015 to be a record year for HBC’s revenue, up over 10 percent compared to 2014, which was roughly even with 2009 – its previous high-water mark. HBC’s recent projects include work on the connecting building between Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World and the American’s Wildlife Museum & Aquarium and a few school additions. He said firm employment varies depending on work available, but the company averaged around 80 employees this year, up roughly 10 people from last year.

To address the available worker shortage, Nesbitt said training has become vital.

“We’ve taken a couple of guys who were good as craftsman and trained them as superintendents,” he said. “We tried to play that deal like the Cardinals do and we raised our own.”

Even so, specialty trades still are needed and Nesbitt said the lack of availability among subcontractors can hold back a project. He recently struggled to get a bid for brick laying. “The guys who were capable of doing the job wouldn’t bid it because they were already covered up,” Nesbitt said.

Nesbitt has a second project in delay because the asphalt contractor is backed up. An unnamed South Campbell Avenue retailer wanted a parking lot addition before Thanksgiving, and now the project might not be done before Christmas.

“Several of the guys who are really good at their trades are not bidding work right now because they are just trying to get out of the stuff they got behind on,” he said.

In Missouri, 59 percent of survey respondents identify estimators as a big need. Over the next 12 months, 42 percent of respondents project difficulty in hiring hourly craft professionals, and 44 percent expect it to be hard hiring salaried workers.

During the next year, 33 percent said it would be harder than it is now to find hourly workers and 24 percent said it would be tougher to nab supervisors.

Looking ahead, Nesbitt hopes to hire a few employees over the next several months.

“We’ve put on four people in the last six months and we’ll probably put on four more if we can find them,” he said.