Finding workers is a hard day's work for contractors

Vermont Business Magazine, Nov 01, 2004 by Kelley, Kevin

Vermont's construction industry has been struggling for years to alleviate a shortage of skilled workers. The scarcity of carpenters, plumbers, electricians and specialists in other trades has inflated the costs of both residential and commercial projects, while crimping the capacity of a key segment of the state's economy.

The average age of a construction worker in Vermont has gone from the 40s a decade ago to the 50s today. And the shortage of workers might be even worse were it not for training programs sponsored by labor unions and similar initiatives launched during the past decade by construction companies and state agencies. But one major program recently ceased to function. And the others have not been able to meet the Vermont industry's needs for some 2,000 additional skilled workers.

The association representing 150 Vermont construction firms is making a renewed push, however, to recruit high school graduates for careers in the trades and to equip current laborers with new sets of skills.

This effort by Associated General Contractors is intended to complement an apprenticeship program run by the state in conjunction with building trades unions that has attracted hundreds of participants.

Vermont is not alone in lacking qualified applicants for a large number of openings in the building trades. The shortage of such workers nationally is estimated at around 250,000.

But some other states have managed to narrow their gaps as their labor pools have grown. Construction companies in most metropolitan areas can rely on a steady influx of young immigrant workers, many of whom are eager to move up from low-wage general laborer positions.

Lacking a sizable population of that kind, Vermont has seen the average age of its construction workers increase from about 45 a decade ago to more than 50 today, according to Thom Serrani, director of the Montpelier-based Associated General Contractors.

Growing Concern

An aging workforce, especially one involved in physical labor, may grow less productive, thus making projects more costly to complete. A need to import skilled workers from out of state also adds significantly to the expenses of some Vermont construction companies. In addition, extra supervisors may have to be assigned to job sites to monitor the quality of work being performed by shorthanded crews.

The labor shortage also makes it difficult for some companies to capitalize on opportunities for growth.

For example, DEW Construction, a seven-year-old firm that did $60 million worth of work last year, could probably expand at an even more rapid pace were sufficient numbers of skilled workers available, says Don Wells, president of the Williston-based company. DEW could use 17 more carpenters in addition to the 48 it currently employs, Wells says.

In all, 2,000 construction jobs went unfilled in Vermont last year, according to Labor and Industry Commissioner Mike Bertrand.

The industry now employs about 15,000 workers, the contractors' association estimates. That compares to 16,900 in the late 1990s, when Vermont was experiencing a building boom similar to today's, and to 11,000 in the early '90s, when the state and the nation were locked in recession.

Employment patterns in construction do follow swings in the larger economy, but they also reflect conditions unique to the industry.

"If you don't have replacement workers coming in, the needs keep building up," Bertrand notes. "The problem was just ignored for a long time, which made it worse. But the industry is starting to focus on it now."

But no matter how hard they focus, recruiters are likely to encounter ingrained resistance from the under-25 set.

"Young people aren't going into construction to the extent they were in previous generations," Serrani says. "Society has told them to go to college instead."

Bertrand agrees that "young people are looking to white-collar positions that are easier on their bodies." He adds, however, that "if they take a critical look at their options, they'll find that the salaries they can earn (in the construction trades) are commensurate with the professions they're thinking about going into."

Wages for skilled construction workers in Vermont hover in the mid-$30,000 range, according to the Department of Employment and Training. The mean income for carpenters stood at $32,560 as of November 2003, while electricians were making $33,560 and plumbers, $36,490. Pay for each of those skilled positions significantly exceeds that for construction laborers, which stood at $23,480.

But wage rates for building trades workers in Vermont are significantly below those in neighboring states, according to James Haslam, director of the Vermont Workers Center. He estimates that carpenters in Massachusetts earn about 40 percent more than do their counterparts in Vermont. Such differentials are an important reason for the shortage of qualified construction workers in Vermont, Haslam says.

Serrani, of Associated General Contractors, notes that a number of Vermonters trained in the building trades moved either temporarily or permanently to the Boston area to fill jobs on the multibillion-dollar "Big Dig" roadway project in the city's downtown.