Labor shortage in building trades worsening

Anybody needing a job these days should consider the building trades, say leaders in the construction industry.

"The labor shortage gets worse every year. I started noticing it about three years ago," said Mark Nation, president of Kenmar Construction. "Before, we would have labor applicants standing in line, but the last two to three years we've had to advertise for help."

Kathy Baer, employment director at the Springfield Contractors Association, agreed that there is a shortage of skilled and unskilled labor. The lack, according to her, is about the same as last year so far.

Baer has standing orders for certain skills. She said that the skilled positions, such as carpentry, are the hardest to fill right now. She described the need for masons especially as being "intense," with "very few masons out there."

"Summer is the busiest time, of course. But I haven't had an overabundance of applicants looking for work year-round," Baer said. SCA's employment referral service places applicants with member companies at no charge. SCA has about 364 member companies in and around Springfield and extending as far as Joplin, Branson and Lebanon.

At Labor Ready, which bills itself as "the nation's leading provider of temporary manual labor," branch manager Alan Hightower said that he thought the market might be a bit slower at the present time because "I'm not covering as many different locations as I used to. We're not getting the calls or seeing as much commercial building going on as there was over the last two or three years."

Hightower added, "I think the weather has had a lot to do with it; things just didn't get started yet. Builders are just finishing things that should have been finished near the first of the year."

In Hightower's experience, the numbers of openings and persons available to fill them vary widely from day to day. "I may have 75 people and 30 jobs to fill on one day, and the reverse the next day. Monday we had plenty of people, Tuesday we could have used another 10 bodies."

Jerry Hackleman, senior vice president at DeWitt & Associates Inc., believes "the current labor market is much tighter than it was last year at this time and it looks like it will be stretched to capacity with the many projects that will be starting in the next 12 to 15 months."

Why is there such a shortage of skilled and unskilled manpower in the building trades? Statistics from the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce's demographic and statistical profile at www.business4springfield.com identify the following factors:

The Springfield metropolitan area of Greene, Christian and Webster counties is growing at a rate of almost 2 percent a year;

For the past three years in Springfield, permits for both commercial and new residential construction have risen steadily; in 2000 a total of 114 commercial permits and 437 new residential permits were issued;

The Springfield metropolitan area has experienced an unemployment rate of less than 3 percent, a 25-year low.

Hackleman pointed out that the manpower crunch is exacerbated not only by the large number of construction projects, but the size of the largest projects. "This labor pool is further being depleted by the fact that the two largest metropolitan areas of the state are experiencing the same problem, and workers that might otherwise travel to follow a busy market are able to stay put."

Other problems limit the employee base, especially that of securing employees with know-how and skills in the current tight labor market. "I hear all the time from our builders that it's difficult to obtain qualified people," said Charlyce Ruth, office manager of the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield.

Dependability, too, is another problem. "We have an especially hard time getting and keeping unskilled labor," Nation said. "Usually, by the time we run a driving check on the people we hire for unskilled, they never show back up. They work for a week or two then leave, and we never see them again."

There is a major need for new blood in the construction industry, according to Hackleman. He warned that "a majority of the construction work force in the field today is over the age of 50 and many of these individuals will be retiring in the near future. This is alarming due to the fact that these are the individuals who have skills, experience and talents required in the industry which are not being passed down to the younger generations."

While Nation assigned part of the blame for the lack of workers to the current good job market, he also said, "It doesn't seem like the younger people coming up want to work."

Hackleman concurred. "Nationally, younger people are choosing employment in other fields where the pay is the same or better and the work is not affected by cold, wet and mud," he said.

"With the increase in manufacturing and service-related jobs in the southwest Missouri area, this is more critical than ever. Also, this is being affected by the shift in educational emphasis in the secondary schools and the colleges. Far more young people are entering the business and computer science programs than the construction or engineering fields."

Ed Alden, vice president of Stenger Homes and president of the local HBA, said, "I know contractors are having problems with skilled labor masonry, carpentry a lot of people are not as drawn to those trades as in the past. Ozark Technical Community College is helping to bring in more young people or retrain people from one job market to another."

Even with graduates from OTC and similar training programs entering the labor pool, the shortage may not be overcome, considering the vigor of the construction industry. Alden said, "The building industry is looking as good, if not better, than last year. Overall, the home building market in Springfield and the surrounding area isn't affected by the slowdown in other parts of the nation because our economy is so diverse. The National Home Builder's Association is expecting a 5 percent downturn, but in the Midwest they expect a 3 to 4 percent increase. Southwest Missouri is a really strong pocket of healthy economy and good relationships between the building industry and local governments which translates into good housing starts for our area."

Hackleman offered a possible solution: "The construction industry as a whole has got to do more to promote itself to young people and to help ensure that the educational and training programs are available to those who have an interest or desire to get into construction."