Now Hiring

The construction predictions of last September are beginning to take shape.

During the Sept. 20 Springfield Regional Construction Bidding Forecast, industry officials estimated at least 132 public projects totaling more than $417 million would kick off during the following 13 months.

Earth is now moving on several multimillion-dollar projects across the Ozarks, including CoxHealth’s $130 million patient tower and $31 million Branson expansion and dozens of Missouri State University projects such as $25 million in athletic stadium and field improvements.  

While the commercial boom is a boon to the local industry, area labor unions and general contractors are hitting the hiring wall as they attempt to staff the job sites.

“The next five or six weeks are going to be busier than the last 10 years,” said Derick Barnes, business agent with the Heavy Construction Laborers Union, Local 663. “In the last month, we have had 20 new hires and we are still looking to hire. We just can’t find the guys.

“If I had a crystal ball, I’d say we need to bring on 100 more people locally this year.”

The Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. reports the U.S. construction industry added 19,000 jobs in March and the construction unemployment rate fell to 11.3 percent. Nonresidential construction segments gained 6,700 jobs, a marked improvement from the 2,800 jobs added in February. The change led the construction unemployment rate to fall from 12.8 percent in February 2014.

While improving, the construction unemployment rate remains nearly five percentage points behind the March national unemployment rate of 6.7 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Before the recession, we had about 225 members, and now we are down to about 150. So the guys we have are very busy,” said John Creller, membership development representative with Bricklayers & Allied Craft Workers, Local 15. “We are going to need help in the future, especially when brick work starts at Cox. By the first of June, we’re probably going to need another 20 or 25 people.”

Skilled-labor gap
Kelly Hall, a representative with the Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity, Local 978, Springfield, is looking to hire – now.

“I need six guys today. I’ll probably need more tomorrow,” he said.

“Bodies are not that hard to find; skills are hard to find.”

Hall projects he’ll need upwards of 50 new skilled workers in the next 12 months, but the construction recession lull has left a gap in the area’s skilled-labor pool.

“For the last three, four or five years, we have seen an industry low,” he said. “We’ve not taken on many apprentices because nobody wanted to be in a declining industry, and it’s left a gap.”

Springfield-based general contractor Carson-Mitchell Inc. President Kit Carson said there previously was only so much work to go around.

“Area volume was down to about 40 percent of what it had been – that means less jobs,” he said, adding those projects went to experienced workers first. “With no constant flow of new people coming in, it’s a problem in Springfield. There are about 50 (Federal Emergency Management Association) shelters going (up) around the area. They require welders and crane operators and skilled people.

“The project level is back to where we were, but not the workforce.”

While Carson said contractors are willing to train new recruits, time is an issue. In March, Carson-Mitchell was awarded an $1.8 million contract to renovate MSU’s Kentwood Hall, a project slated for completion before the start of the fall 2014 semester.

“We can hire a guy off the street, but a typical apprenticeship takes about four years,” he said. “When you have a project due in 90 days, that’s a problem.

“When you send in the A team, things go a lot faster and a lot smoother than when you send in the C team.”

Carson said there isn’t an immediate fix for the skills dilemma, suggesting the only stop-gap solution is increased management oversight.

“If you have a guy in there who’s not as familiar with what he’s doing, you need a manager to watch over him,” he said. “That leads to a demand for more managers and more jobs I need to fill.”

Carson said his firm picked up five workers with specific skills last month, but is still in need of welders, and he expects a larger need for warm bodies when demolition begins on Kentwood Hall as the spring semester ends.

Creller said he continues to scour area job and career fairs looking for young recruits.

“I just attended the recent SkillsUSA competition and got applications (from) the top three contestants,” he said. “We’ve got to keep this ball rolling.”

On the horizon
Hall said right now, about 60 percent of area commercial construction is in the health care industry, but he expects that to change as the developing bid calendar continues to process.

“MSU has a full slate, Bass Pro’s Wonders of Wildlife is coming on line and (Springfield Public Schools) is just now beginning to process and will be tackled throughout the summer,” he said, referring to the R-12 district’s $55.7 million in bond-issue projects. “I think by the end of the year, we are going to see at least two or three more huge projects announced.”

Heavy Construction Laborers’ agent Barnes said the local industry is holding its breath.

“There is another $60 to $80 million in projects out there, with about $50 million still to bid,” he said. “Things are looming just around the corner, but we don’t know what to prepare for yet.”

Barnes said following the completion of projects such as the $28 million Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital, slated for a ribbon cutting ceremony April 16, previously occupied skilled workers will be free to tackle other projects and help ease the burden.

Hall said there is no way to predict if the current commercial boom will continue, but said Springfield’s construction industry is unique.

“In construction, its feast or famine, but sometimes that’s not the case in Springfield,” he said. “We were down during the recession, but not as hard as some areas.

“There’s an optimism in the area right now. We are on the brink of big things and everyone knows it.”