For want of qualified workers

CHARLOTTE – The writing has been on the yet-to-be-built wall for the last couple of years.

After a tough time during the Great Recession, construction firms have returned to their feet and are rebuilding the business that was lost during those dark days, when projects were few and dollars fewer.

The ascent has already started for the local construction industry – 2013 was the best year for contractors in Mecklenburg County since 2008. The county in 2013 issued 17,053 building permits worth $2.75 billion, up 5.5 percent from 16,157 permits and up 12.2 percent from $2.45 billion in 2012, according to the county’s building permits database.

Contractors in North Carolina, and across the country, have said they expect 2014 to be even stronger than last year.

But with the construction industry in the dawn of a boom year, contractors also have said they are struggling with a shortage of skilled laborers, which if it remains will delay projects and lead to cost overruns as the companies scramble to paper over the cracks left by the missing workers.

According to a survey done by the Associated General Contractors of America, when asked about hiring plans in 2014, 29 percent of N.C. construction firms said they plan to hire employees this year and no firms said they plan to lay off employees. In terms of construction materials that firms expect to buy in 2014, 83 percent said they plan to buy more than in 2013 and no firms said they plan to buy less; 55 percent of firms said they plan to bid on projects farther away from their traditional geographic areas; and 50 percent of firms said they expect competitive pressure to increase in 2014.

But the AGC also reported that 58 percent of N.C. construction firms polled said they are having some sort of difficulty filling positions. The majority of those firms – and 28 percent of all companies – said the hardest positions to fill were those of craft workers.

(Related: Charlotte gains construction jobs)

The AGC found that in-state firms especially are finding it difficult to hire equipment operators, with 55 percent of companies reporting difficulty; pipefitters and welders, 50 percent; plumbers, 25 percent; and iron workers, electricians and cement masons, all 20 percent.

Contractors are having these staffing troubles for a variety of reasons, said Bill Stricker, vice president of professional development with Carolinas AGC. During the recession, when little construction work was available, many of the most skilled workers left the industry, either retiring or switching careers. They wanted more stability, he said. Others, who may have been interested in entering the trades, were bombarded with reports of a struggling construction industry and chose a different path.

Still, the biggest problem is a general misconception of construction, Stricker said.

“People aren’t selecting construction as a career choice and we think … that’s because it all has to do with image; people would prefer to work inside rather than outside,” he said. “There’s this belief that construction jobs pay poorly and have poor benefits.

“Our main thing is getting the message out that that’s not really the case. They’re pretty high wages, buddy.”

Michael DiFabion, president of the Charlotte chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, at the organization’s meeting last week lamented the lack of skilled professionals among younger people in the industry. DiFabion said the chapter’s goal is to cultivate the next generation of remodeling professionals.

“No one dreams of becoming a remodeler as a kid or goes to college with that in mind. It happens by default,” DiFabion told the audience. “There is no shame in becoming a plumber or electrician.”

Others say it isn’t only a misconception about the construction industry, but the firms themselves not doing enough to keep workers.

George Wightman, Central Piedmont Community College’s chairman of the construction management degree program and former owner of George E. Wightman Jr. Builder Inc., said companies can’t continue to treat employees as expendable.

“When we have these (economic) cycles, a lot of times the skilled workers are put out to pasture,” Wightman said. “They’re treated as subcontractors so they really drop off the radar. We’ve got to do something different in this industry if we’re going to keep our workforce.”

Pat Rodgers, president and CEO of Charlotte-based Rodgers, one of the largest contractors in the region, said her company hasn’t seen much of a shortage of skilled labor, but said that comes down to more than luck. Rodgers said she does her best to retain employees, who tend to stay with the company.

“We try to grow our talent from within,” she said. “That’s been key for us. We promote internally and train internally and we’re going to continue doing that going forward.”

But Rodgers did say as other firms continue to feel the reduction and absence of skilled workers in the industry, it could affect her company. When talent is short and every contractor needs that talent, you’re going to start seeing “a war for talent,” she said.

Contractors are willing to stage a siege on fellow contractors because a shortage of workers typically means an extension on projects, which means losing out on greenbacks, the enemy of all business.

“It’s going to push the construction schedule on out, is what’s going to happen,” Stricker said. “If you don’t have enough masons to do the work, you have to wait until the masons are available and that pushes the construction schedule on back.”

But the shortage of masons doesn’t only affect the masonry, it affects any portion of the project that follows the masons or is dependent on the masons’ work. And based on the AGC findings listed above, the shortage in N.C. includes more than just one sector of the industry.

“It’s kind of a domino effect,” Wightman said. “If you don’t have the skilled labor it takes a whole lot longer to raise the bar for the people you have. You have a time frame and cost and you have to do it safely. If you’ve got less skilled workers, you have to spend more time on the safety category and teach the people how to be safe. The byproduct of the onsite training is its going to affect your timeline as to how soon you can produce that product, and it’s going to increase your costs.”

Despite the concerns about labor, N.C. firms were confident in the health of the construction industry going forward in 2014. Of the 11 categories surveyed, contractors thought construction would decrease in only one category: marine construction. Firms were confident that 2014 would be a good year in highway construction, with 90 percent of firms saying it would be better than 2013; manufacturing construction, 52 percent; water and sewer construction, 47 percent; and public building, 40 percent.

“Contractors are more optimistic about 2014 than they have been in a long time,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, CEO of the AGC. “While the industry has a long way to go before it returns to the employment and activity levels it experienced in the middle of the last decade, conditions are heading in the right direction.”

That optimism has to be more than just a little cautious, with the skilled-labor situation as it is. When asked about finding skilled workers in 2014, 73 percent of N.C. firms said it would just as hard, if not harder, to find skilled workers, compared to 2013.

When asked about the best way to solve the local craftsmen crisis, sources all pointed in a similar direction.

“We need to continue to support our technical schools, like CPCC,” Rodgers said.

“Absolutely, CPCC is the way it has to be done,” Stricker said about combating the lack of workers. “To give them the training they need and to test them to see where they are, the community colleges are the key here. They have the facilities to do the training. As taxpayers, we’ve paid for those facilities to do that training.”

Chris Paynter, CPCC’s dean of science, technology, engineering, math and sustainability, said the school has been hard at work trying to generate interest and get students involved in the trades. He said he goes to high schools in the area to help disseminate information about the positives of the construction industry, as opposed to the negative image he said is more easily conjured by today’s adolescents.

Wightman said, with recent bond money, CPCC has been able to pour money into its facilities to provide a modern and complete experience to its construction students. Still, he said it’s an ongoing process that CPCC officials are trying to figure out.

“I don’t have the answer,” he said. “We’re trying, I promise you. We would like to solve this problem.”

─ Staff writer Graziella Steele contributed to this report