A recent report by the Construction Industry Institute on productivity in the United States has raised questions, concerns and opened some eyes. To fully appreciate the new study, one needs to be aware of past studies. Starting in the 1960s, studies on production of American workers have been well documented. Most of these studies revealed that technology had increased non-farm productivity as much as 200 percent across the board. However, during the same period of time, the construction industry had actually dropped about 20 percent.
For years, it was generally assumed that labor unions were to blame and they routinely put the brakes on productivity in construction. The newest study throws a major wrench into that long-held belief. The result of a comprehensive study compiled after interviewing almost 2,000 craft workers has revealed some interesting findings.