Shortage Of Tradesmen

INTRA

Do you guys think there will be a shortage of trademens in 5 to 10 years.
With most construction work being so slow, and with trade schools not
Filling up. I think more and more people are staying away from learning a construction
Trade in the near future. What do you guys think

carolinahandyma

There may be a shortage of tradespeople in the not too distant future or may be not. I think many non-trades people are going to figure out that building, construction, remodeling, repair etc. are all things that can't be outsourced to other countries.

Yes, things are slow but I don't see us going back to living in huts or caves. People have to live somewhere and someone has build, maintain, repair and improve where we live. So I think renovation, repair, maintenance are all solid industries to be in now and in the future.

Others will figure out that out and want to join the ranks as well.

Framer53

Around here there already is a shortage of masons!

NormW

Masons are becoming a rare breed here, as well...

ChrWright

There's already a shortage of good craftsmen in many trades--and it will likely only get worse. The guys who suck are teaching another generation who will suck even worse than they do.

It sickens me to see some of the work being turned out these days--much of it overseen by builders who have never been craftsmen themselves, and thus don't know the first thing about selecting subs.

I've spent all day fixing someone else's f-ups so my views are a tad skewed at the moment.

__________________

Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
www.WrightWorks.net - Facebook - Twitter - Carmel Remodeling
Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

skyhook

Only English speaking ones.

__________________

ChrWright

The busted boom that led to all this mess created a lot of paper builders who didn't know the first thing about how things should be built. Most of the problems don't show up until long after that last check was cashed--and many MANY of those hacks are no longer in business anymore so there's no one around to stand up and make it right.

A waste of good materials, in most cases. Where's the track-ho...

__________________

Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
www.WrightWorks.net - Facebook - Twitter - Carmel Remodeling
Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

Mike Finley

Here is one of the reasons for a shortage now and more to come :

Frank P

Mike Finley for President. 2 calloused thumbs up.

Warren

God help us all!!

Heritage

I agree with some of the guys above, there already is a shortage.

Now, if in some parallel universe, the Gov't was to step up and raise the bar of entry into the trades then we would suffer even worse with regards to an actual "shortage".

I would personally like to see a shortage for the obvious reasons. Volume seldom = quality.

I'm far less concerned with the shortage than I am with the actual prerequisite of entry.

__________________
Toronto General Contractor-Renovation Blog-Contractor on Facebook-Renovation on twitter-Contractor Youtube

IHI

Great post and i could'nt agree more!! We've noticed an influx of "rework" type jobs, where homies hire out a job, and homies dont know any better as to who they're hiring in the first place by and large, and these crews come in and do some outlanish work....things beyond any comprehension...the one deck we had to fix....they literally used 3 1/2" treated deck screws and toenailed all the railing posts to the decking....that was it....that was all that held the posts to the deck. Homie seen us building all the decks in that neighborhood that got ravished by floods and asked us to look at it, you could deflect the railing sections 6" either direction and it was only 2 weeks old. Beams were screwed to the outside of the posts with pole barn screws...seriously. But this is the type of stuff we're seeing more of on a scarey regular basis.

I dont ever think there'll be a shortage of "skilled/unskilled" labor.....when using those terms to talk about our trade, for the simple fact people think they can do anything, all their buddies can do anything, and what is the #1 profession folks turn to when the chips are down....construction jobs, weather it be helping a friend hack status or moonlighting themselves thinking they know what they're doing....and we know most of the time they know juuust enough to be extremely dangerious.

__________________
Hot Rod Work Van
Car video clip
Web
The Photo Gear- Type Josh into Contact name when ordering

Tinstaafl

One of the biggest reasons I see for a possible future shortage of tradesmen is the ever-burgeoning quantity of codes and regulations that have to be met just to be legal--let alone good. I know more than a couple of very skilled guys who are actually looking forward to a chance to get out of it. They enjoy the work, but are sick of trying to keep up with the ever-shifting regulatory morass.

And not to send the thread south (well, maybe), that's one reason for the abundance of so-called hacks who sidestep building permits, insurance and so forth. If every single tradesman rigidly adhered to every single regulation out there--along with many more to come from all sorts of special-interest groups--your average homeowner would be very hard-pressed to contemplate even a simple remodel with the funds he has available.

Mike Finley

I still can't believe the job I looked at to redo a steam shower where the customers hired some hack ass handyman type and they actually told me the guy had a book on the job site that he read from every day to learn how to build a steam shower.

The worst part of it was they seemed to be defending him and thought that he was smart or something cause he was 'smarter' then other contractors cause he was using a book.

rselectric1

I don't know the solution, but one of the problems seems to be the image of the trades being a "second choice" career to fall back on.

Every parent wants their kids to be doctors and lawyers=unrealistic
The kids want to be firefighters, the president, super heros, video game designers, etc.=unrealistic

If kids were taught that the trades are an honest way to make a living (if you go about it the right way) from an earlier age, there would be more quality people available.

__________________
220...221...whatever it takes!

NormW

The saddest part of the trades currently, is the way we treat our help. Honestly, Im as guilty as anyone else.

I never looked deeply into the history of building. Well, not true. I fall asleep reading books on old tools, furniture , blacksmithing, timberframing... whatever I can find. But, I don't know what happened to the apprenticeship, journeyman, master progression.

I've read a lot about the civil war, and my impression is it started to die out, around then, probably to be finished off by around World War I. Im making a Wild Guess.

Does anyone know of any good source of information, on how people were brought into the trades, back when?

Ive seen a lot of stuff in the trades, a lot of it, has been a hoot. But, the things that'll bother me the most in the end, might not be the customers.

It may be all the new guys, who got kleenx'd at the end of the job. Some of them were the best part of going to work. But at the end of many jobs, when the grunt work ran low, not to mention budgets, they were the first let go, without any warning.

Often instead of these guys being told honestly, why they where getting the boot. They were made to believe it was for their own shortcomings, instead of the hard truth...

Anyway, it would be nice, if somehow, someone, could find a way to make it economically feasible for small operators to train and retain new people in the trades. The current way, which is how I learned the trade, is a trial, not to be recommended.

Mike Finley

Illegals causing stagnant wages haven't helped. Why would a kid want to get into sheet rocking when he is going to be working on a crew that doesn't speak English and making less then he could at McDonalds?

The next Myron Fergusen will be born in Mexico.

J F

wasn't myron born in mexico?

ProWallGuy

Nunca habrá una escasez de comerciante. Ellos apenas don' t sucede hablar la lengua local. Y don' t olvida, hay millones más de ellos apenas que esperan para cruzar la frontera y para llenar esos puntos.

__________________
Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

rselectric1

Donde estan mis pantelones?

__________________
220...221...whatever it takes!