Associated Builders and Contractors announced the honorees of its 2024 national Construction Workforce Awards, which includes Craft Instructor of the Year, Craft Professional of the Year and Young Professional of the Year.
Eighty-eight percent of construction firms are having a hard time finding workers to hire, undermining efforts to build infrastructure and other projects as firms boost pay and embrace AI to cope with labor shortages
Few candidates have the basic skills needed to work in high-paying construction careers, forcing short-staffed contractors to find new ways to keep pace with demand and undermining efforts to build infrastructure and other projects, according to the results of a workforce survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America and Autodesk.
Employers — especially construction employers — will be interested in new data the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics published May 18 on the role of foreign-born persons in the U.S. workforce (people currently working in the United States who were born outside the U.S. and neither parent was a U.S. citizen).
Just some surprising statistics to prepare the scene: in 2020, the Bureau of Labor stated approximately only 10 percent of the overall construction industry was women. By the end of 2022, after two long pandemic years, that number was only slightly higher at 11 percent.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced a new initiative to promote equal opportunity by federal contractors in the construction trades on large federally funded projects and help bring more underrepresented communities into the workforce.
In southern Dallas, close to 30 percent of residents and 41 percent of children are living in poverty. The unemployment rate is more than triple that of Dallas county. The Women's Workforce Initiative will help drive economic mobility by directly impacting the earning potential of women who lack access to the quality, equitable paying jobs obtained by their male counterparts.
In response to the growing demand for sustainable, loose-fill insulation products, The Knauf Group, has increased production capabilities at its Albion, Michigan plant.
It is no secret that the U.S. is suffering from a post-pandemic labor shortage. The commercial construction industry was already suffering labor losses prior to Covid-19 and is finding it even more difficult now to attract skilled and general labor.