Autodesk, AGC Report Shows Severe Construction Labour Shortages
Emily Pollock posted on September 03, 2018 |
While construction labor shortages across the country are opening doors for labor-saving technology onsite, organizations like the Associated General Contractors of America are concerned about the future of the industry. (Image courtesy of AGC America.)
According to a recent survey of construction firms, 80 percent of American contractors have a hard time finding qualified hourly craft workers. The shortage is leading to higher costs and slower construction processes.
The survey, released on August 29th by Autodesk and the Associated General Contractors of America, includes results from 2,500 survey respondents at construction firms. The biggest finding this year is that the labour shortage is consistent across the country, with only a slight dip to 77 percent reporting shortages in the Northeast. And although salaried worker positions were easier to fill than hourly positions, 60% of firms still reported difficulty hiring for these positions. In the joint AGC/Autodesk press conference on the report, chief AGC economist
Ken Simonson said that these shortages were “significant and widespread.”
Not all of the report’s news is grim. Construction employment went up in 281 out of 358 metropolitan areas that the association tracks in the last year, according to a new analysis of federal construction employment data released at the same time….