Meeting the Demand for Skilled Craftworkers
January - February 2002
“How many jobs will be created by growth in construction, and who will fill these new positions?” were questions addressed by the BAC Executive Council as part of its work on the Millennium Morning Project. At their first meeting of the year, Council members heard from a series of experts on the outlook for construction and labor-force trends.
Kim Kennedy, Manager of Forecasting for Dodge Analytics, updated the Council on the outlook for construction activity. Dodge’s revised forecast is calling for a 2 percent drop in the value of contracts for new construction this year to $481.9 billion. Even with this setback, the value of contracts for new construction will still approach the historic high reached last year, and is expected to regain its momentum in 2003. With this increase, demand for masonry craftworkers will also grow.
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Michael Horrigan, Assistant Commissioner for the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, told the Council that the outlook for employment in the masonry industry is positive. Reporting on the Department’s latest labor-force projections, Horrigan said that between 2000 and 2010, roughly 48,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the masonry trades, and another 91,000 jobs will open up due to masonry craftworkers leaving the trades due to retirements, deaths, and career changes. This creates a potential for more than 100,000 masonry job openings during this period.
Where will these workers — the next generation of BAC members — come from? According to Horrigan, the “2010 labor force is expected to have a greater proportion of women and Hispanics than the 2000 labor force.” Along with more traditional sources, women and Hispanic workers will be a prime source of new masonry craftworkers and BAC members in the years ahead.
Challenges for Organized Labor
Bob Blakely, Director of the Canadian Office of the Building and Construction Trades Department, presented sobering figures to the Council on what the future holds for unions not willing to expand their ranks and increase efforts to organize more minorities and women. “Bob’s presentation leaves no doubt that current workforce demographics and projections for the construction industry are going to require substantial action on our part, both in the short and long term — in the U.S., as well as in Canada,” President John J. Flynn told the Council.
“The trends in the U.S. and Canada are similar. Our ranks are aging,” Blakely explained to Council members. “According to Statistics Canada, a major demographic shift will take place in the next ten years. As a result, more career opportunities will open up for skilled masonry craftworkers. But this trend will also create challenges. There are literally thousands of reasons people can invent as to why we don’t need new people in the trades, almost all of those are bogus!” said Blakely.
He reminded the Council that we are part of an industry that does not stand still. “We need to expand our market share by organizing small contractors, because small contractors become large contractors. We also need to do more to attract and retain members. And we need to train now to ensure that we can meet the current and future demand for skilled masonry craft workers,” he added. The masonry industry’s “future viability strongly depends on the availability of an adequate supply of skilled labour,” said Blakely. “There’s no time like the present, because tomorrow will be too late.”
Dale McCormick, founder of Women Unlimited and the current Treasurer of the state of Maine, encouraged BAC leaders to take advantage of community based women’s groups for help in reaching out to women. She noted that these groups could help BAC make the connection with women interested in pursuing careers in the masonry industry. “Every industry will be competing for these workers,” said McCormick. “The industries and organizations that effectively reach out to these workers will be the ones that are able to meet their industry’s labor-force demand and continue to grow.”
Public Awareness of Unions — It’s Up to Us
In fact, having a steady supply of skilled craftworkers is the biggest challenge identified by employers, Geoff Garin, President of Peter Hart Research, told attendees. Reporting on a series of surveys conducted for the AFL-CIO, the Building and Construction Trades Department, and the International Masonry Institute, Garin said that unions face challenges convincing future workers to choose a career in the construction industry and join a union. When the public was asked to rank construction as a job choice it fell in the middle, with jobs such as computer programmer, computer technician, X-ray technician, and airplane mechanic ranking higher.
Although the public’s attitude towards labor unions has improved somewhat, their opinion of labor’s influence and understanding of what unions do has declined. More than half of adults surveyed said they know little to nothing about unions in general and they know less about construction unions. Further, when asked if they would vote for a union in a representation election, only 42 percent said they would vote for a union. When the term “employee association” was substituted for the word “union,” 78 percent said they would vote for an employee association. “This is significant,” said Garin. “What do they think the difference is between an employee association and a union?” Attracting young people to the masonry industry and helping potential members and the public understand the benefits of a union are challenges union members and leaders need to address.
The Council also discussed next steps in the Millennium Morning Project including conducting research on masonry’s market share, and union and non-union masonry contractors’ and workers’ outlook for the future.
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