A New Blueprint for America’s Construction Trades

Each week the growing challenge of the construction workforce shortage seems to garner more media attention. On Sunday, CBS featured a story, A New Blueprint for America’s Construction Trades, on the growing challenge facing construction companies in the United States.

CBS reported that for every one person entering the industry, five are retiring. CBS’s Mark Stassmann interviewed people engaged in different aspects of the construction industry.

Norm Abram, of PBS’s This Old House told Stassman that the shortage is the biggest issue facing the industry. “It’s the biggest thing I hear from contractors,” he said. “‘What’s your biggest problem?’ ‘I can’t find good help.'”

Stassmann also interviewed Henry Jackson, a construction manager in Baltimore, about what his sons thought of a career in the construction industry, “They think it’s grueling, back-breaking work and they don’t want to do it.”

“And what do you tell them?” asked Strassmann.

“I tell ’em that it is, but it’s very rewarding at the end of the day,” Jackson replied.

Such is typical of today’s high school students. Jobs in the construction industry are not very appealing. A 2017 survey of career-minded young people found that only three percent were interested in a construction trade.

The construction workforce shortage in the Carolinas is creating challenges for construction firms in North Carolina and South Carolina. GroundBreak Carolinas recently did a two part feature series on the workforce shortage: Help Wanted: A Sign of the Times in the Construction Industry.

View the CBS News’ A New Blueprint for America’s Construction Trades.

Access GroundBreak Carolinas’ workforce development resources.