Labor Shortage Solutions Combating the Lack of Skilled Craftsmen Happy were the days when the nail bag was passed from father to son, one generation passing its craftsmanship on to the next. Now young people seem to eschew the high-end construction trades in exchange for the lure of promising positions in technology or other emerging fields, leaving a shortage of skilled laborers. And custom homebuilders are feeling the pinch. "You don’t find the average drywaller telling his kid to go into hanging sheet rock,” says Tony Calvis, president of Calvis Wyant Luxury Homes in Scottsdale, Ariz. "In the old days you’d have a finish carpenter showing his son how to take the shop over. I don’t think that works well anymore.” The U.S. Department of Labor projects that between 2004-2014, jobs for carpenters will increase at a rate of 9-17 percent. Despite obvious opportunity, Calvis says that while still possible to make a living doing, most children don’t follow in the footsteps of the last generation. Even his own teenage children don’t show an interest in joining their father’s path. He states that he’s watched the shortage approaching and growing since he entered the business in 1986, and speculates that the root cause is an aging population of tradesmen that is not being replaced by the smaller, upcoming youth population. "The answer is easy—it’s hard work,” says Calvis. "It’s not a comfortable desk job. Our kids have been raised on computers now, so they want to do something where they work with their brains. They aren’t as attracted as previous generations to working with their backs.” John Kaltenbach of Albuquerque, N.M.-based John Kaltenbach Homes, sees the situation unraveling similarly in his area. "I have no idea why young people are not coming into the trades,” he says. "It may not be very glamorous, although the pay is probably better than they realize. We either need to keep them [young people] out of jail or get them before they start working in AOL call centers.” This palpable sense of frustration is not unwarranted. According to information gathered by the NAHB and published in the Builders’ Economic Council Survey in May 2006, every sector of the construction industry is experiencing some labor shortage. The numbers are highest in the need for finished and rough carpenters, with approximately 40 percent of the survey’s respondents indicating they have experienced some shortage or a serious shortage of labor. One solution is to better market the industry to young people. "Part of the reason we think this is happening is that parents, guidance counselors and young people don’t realize there are over 100 careers in the industry,” says Fred Humphreys, president and CEO of the Home Builders Institute (HBI), the workforce development arm of NAHB. "We’re trying to have a variety of programs to get guidance counselors, parents and students the information they need to consider us as a career.” To fight back against the shortage HBI has launched a career campaign initiative called "Make It Happen.” The campaign is intended to educate not only parents and students on the many career paths open to young people in the construction industry, but also to give NAHB members and local home building associations the promotional tools they need to sell the industry. The kit includes a CD-ROM and brochures. "It’s perfect for career-day presentations that builders might make,” says Humphreys. HBI has also formed alliances with the national PTA and Junior Achievement to try to impact the career choices of young people. "We have access we never had before to decision makers in the high schools,” he states. Another issue Humphreys identifies is the misconception that a career in construction doesn’t require an advanced degree. On the contrary, most of the careers require some post-graduate work, such as an associate degree. "If you’re a young person and you want to continue your education post-secondary, we want to make sure you understand that to be successful in our industry we expect you to do that in many cases,” he says. "It’s not, ‘oh, I can go into construction or I can go to college.’ No, you can do both.” Just ask Larry Harding. Harding is the carpentry instructor at Walla Walla Community College in Walla Walla, Wash., and from his perspective the shortage is in education programs, not willing laborers. Harding runs a program at the school to train carpenters, wherein students build a home from the ground up and sell the home at the end of the school year. He graduates five to six students a year and states that the number could be higher if there were more instructors. His students are so in demand, it is not uncommon for him to let graduates go early when they have finished their training in the spring so that they can take positions working for eager contractors. "I have a waiting list [for the program], believe it or not,” says Harding. "I know there’s a shortage in the industry, but there’s no shortage of students by any means. We’re strapped by having only one program. We should have two or three because everyone who leaves this program gets employed.” While Harding isn’t seeing interest in construction jobs decreasing, there is one major change he’s seen in his 18 years of teaching with the program. "Our Hispanic population accounts for about 60 or 70 percent of classes now,” he explains. The influx of Hispanic workers in the construction industry can be seen across the country. In his document Construction Workers: Settling In, Michael Carliner of NAHB’s Economics Group notes that information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that 20.6 percent of construction trades and 33.3 percent of laborers were Hispanic/Latino in 2002, up from 16.4 and 27.7 percent, respectively, in 2000, and Latinos represent 70 percent of foreign-born construction workers. John Kaltenbach explains that, "We are very dependent on immigrant labor. Many Mexican nationals are doing carpentry and other work that we didn’t see them doing a few years ago.” This brings to light the contentious subject of border control and foreign-born workers supporting the nation’s economy. Kaltenbach is quick to clarify that he only hires licensed and insured subcontractors, but the employees of the subcontractors are not subject to his scrutiny. "The efforts to seal the border make sense, but the federal government needs to be consistent,” he continues. "It is critical to our economy that they [Mexican nationals] are allowed to continue to work, regardless of how they work it out.” The same is true in Texas, where George Lewis of George Lewis Custom Homes says he sees Hispanic laborers preserving quality craftsmanship. In 35 years, he says the rise in craftsmanship in custom home building has been paralleled by the rise in work performed by Hispanics in trades. "This group works in every aspect of fine home construction,” Lewis explains. "Family members are brought up in apprentice roles to learn the craft. As a result, we have the ability to create much finer homes than previously, for relatively competitive prices.” Industry experts are not turning a blind eye to the growing importance of Hispanic labor. In fact, they are making steps to embrace and educate this demographic. "Anywhere in this country if you drive out to a construction site where they’re building houses, you will see a substantial number of Hispanic workers, and it’s growing everyday,” says Humphreys. He notes that the advocacy division of NAHB is working with Congress to influence progressive immigration legislation that works for the construction industry. In addition, HBI is working on a new initiative it hopes to complete in the first quarter of 2007 called "Sed de Saber” ("Thirst for Knowledge”). The program provides basic English literacy skills to Hispanic construction workers. Modeled after a similar program created for Hispanic hospitality workers, it uses an interactive device to teach basic life skills and terminology specific to a work site. While many of these HBI initiatives are still in their infancy, Humphreys states that, "I think we’re making modest progress.” Many custom homebuilders indicate that they maintain quality control by developing long-term productive relationships with their subcontractors. But for those who are struggling to find skilled workers, Noel Wheeler thinks he has the answer. "We are, in the broadest sense, a temporary staffing company exclusively in the construction industry,” says Wheeler, CEO of CLP Resources, Inc. His company can provide skilled staffers to a job site for anywhere from one day to six months. While staffing services may have been unnecessary 40 years ago, when a contractor had a ready pool of workers to draw from, with the evolution of the workforce shortage contractors are increasingly turning to staffing agencies to put together their crews. Organizations like CLP Resources provide a pre-screened pool of skilled workers to contractors, and offer benefits and job consistency to trades people. It is a formula Wheeler says is the look of labor for the future. "What I see happening over the next 10 to 15 years is a much broader acceptance of temporary staffing as a way to get workers,” says Wheeler. Unlike a contractor, who may lose valuable time hunting down a worker at the last minute, Wheeler’s people are growing their resource pool every single day, on Internet job boards, at trade associations, in churches and through community associations, so there is always a worker at their fingertips. "It’s an ongoing, proactive recruitment,” he explains. While no one wants to be quick to point out that the labor shortage is having an adverse affect on the construction industry’s product, Tony Calvis says that quality is being affected. But he is optimistic that better construction management is stemming that problem. "The construction business is waking up to it and we’re so much more management-oriented than we were a few years ago,” he explains. "The industry realizes it needs to have more training and more quality control in place. I already see that happening.”