Skilled Trades Labor Pool

DesPro

I just read some interesting statistics for the construction industry. Did you realize The average age of workers in skilled trades is currently 48, according to the National Education Association ?The average age of a welder is mid-50s

Consider the aging baby boomers , many soon to retire. 240,000 skilled tradesmen retire each year leaving major vacancies to be filled. At the current rate of new recruitment , our industry is facing tremendous shortages.
Skill shortages mean rising wages for skilled careers.

By the year 2012 there will be a need for an additional 1.1 million special trades contractors.

I know we are all faced with the dilemma of finding and retaining quality employees.
If only they would realize computers can't build houses.

Ah...If I were only 25 yrs younger.

__________________
"We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems."
Margaret Mead

GregS

Here the Ontario government has been spouting simular facts for the last few years. They have now set up programs to try and convince youth to get into the skilled trades and advertise quite a bit on TV and radio.

There's currently a housing boom around here.. not sure how much longer that will last, but I'd say the average age of the person on the job site is over 40.

KentWhitten

Yep, hopefully it means mo' money for us! I'm trying, but no youngsters wanna pick up a hammer.

Susan Betz

No, no, it means the skilled tradespeople entering illegally will be able to charge more!

(that's sarcasm, btw)

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Fences of Distinction, Ocala, FL
http://www.fencesofdistinction.com

go do it

yep my 20 yr old son wants nothing to do with working in the feild.

he wants to set up a green home building company with him behind the desk and me in the feild with my bags on!!

these kids they want ot go to the top right away with no dues paid

Frankawitz

I don't know if those numbers really tell the story they didn't figure in all the ILLEGALS who take those jobs Americans don't want. If you check out numbers on ImmigrationCounter.com they tell a whole different story on labor. In my trade we are seeing less work for us and lower prices for our work. so I don't see were it's going to be better it just tells me I should be able to work intil I'm 70 years old and that's only twenty more years of slinging mud.

DesPro

Well I guess I'm fortunate that I have a 25 yr old daughter and a 21 yr old son who work for me as Kitchen & Bath Designers . My daughter has been with me for 7 yrs and her first year was spent on the job site helping with me with installations. The experience she acquired was priceless. Both daughter and son do a dynamite job in sales and design.

I've tried recruiting other design / sales people at age ranges from 25 to 45 and the outcome is always the same..... " It's too hard , I can't do this".... and after that comes the reliability factor.

The same goes with training installers. They simply can't retain what I've tried to teach them. Even those with so called "experience" possess a distorted perception of acceptable work ethic or A.D.D. I've even gone as far as having them repeat to me the instruction that was given prior to actually performing the task and guess what... If I'm not looking over their shoulder the result is a screwup or unacceptable quality.

I've been attempting to relieve myself from the field so I can focus more on my administrative duties and grow my company but it isn't working yet.

So I have to agree that skilled tradesmen and potential skilled tradesmen are dying breed.

__________________
"We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems."
Margaret Mead

Mike Finley

You all think this has something to do with our congress men and women and President Bush being so hot to legalize all the illegals as quickly as possible?? hmmmmm.....

WNYcarpenter

I was curious about this....we have 18 carpenters in the field. Our average age is 40.6. 10 are older than 45 and 13 older than 30.

I would guess our turn over rate is 5:1 at the laborer/apprentice position. In this area an apprentice carpenter (non-union) makes the same as a burger flipper, or stockboy at the depot or walmart.

I don't know the answer, but I hope people don't lean too quickly to lean towards the lowest common denominator and presume the reason is because the youth of today are lazy. I'm willing to bet the average age of the military fighting the war on terror is lower than 48.

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"I knew I lost my wallet as soon as I threw my pants over the fence". -'lil jarhead bro when asking for a wire transfer...

JustaFramer

You hit the nail on the head.

Why would any one want to start out at minimum wage in construction?
I won't and I didn't. I haven't seen a wage increase in the residential field for years. I know this one kid he's about 5 years younger got LBI'd worked for this one GC. When his guys wanted more money he tried getting more more per sq ft for wage increase the scumbag GC told him to get rid of his guys and hire cheaper guys. Which is the typical sediment from the all the tract building GC's.

I had my shot to go commercial and took it. I don't contract but 70g's and benefits paid by the employer a year is a good piece of jack. And I dont' have to take **** from some residential PM or Sup that only makes 50 to 60gs a year salary.
Hell I could push 100gs if I did a lot of ot. Have th option just dont' want it right now.

mdshunk

Speedy Petey predicted that in our lifetime, truly skilled tradesmen may be regarded on the same economic level as doctors and lawyers if current trends persist. I hope he's right, for purely selfish reasons!

The IBEW (electrician's union) has recognized this fact, and they've been on a hiring spree for about a year to add 1 million trained electricians to the ranks.

KillerToiletSpider

Our local union has raised apprentice pay to almost double minimum wage, and there is also the fact that they get paid to go to school one day a week, making for a four day actual work week.

__________________
A flush is better than a full house.

DesPro

I tend to agree. However I doubt I'll see it in the remainder of my career .

__________________
"We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems."
Margaret Mead

POOLMANinCT

"the skilled labor pool is leaking"

that's an inside joke around here, but I'm sure you can dig it!!!!!!

__________________
......Less with the jaw & More with the paw.....

Terran_Sky

The same skill shortage is occuring in Australia too......my government gives some Incentives to apprentices to encourage them to stick to the trade. New apprentices gets a $800 tool kit allowance and a $2000 once off payment tax free in 4 payments to help kick start their apprenticeship. We even set up around 10 vocational schools with so kids can start their career even before finishing school. Governments need to make trade careers more attractive to youths and bringing in skilled migrants workers won't solve the problem. Im a 1st yr apprentice electrician at the moment and the wages for apprentice aren't that appealing to young people(you can more money working in retail stacking shelves). I love the incentives and hope they introduced some more!

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Location:Sydney, AUstralia

HallisseyDesign

Hahaha your right I am 20 and do not like a hammer but love my sets of nail guns! Really I run my business at 20 and I love swinging a hammer. Dead-on tools- The Titanium hammer is a very nice tool to have and also save your elbows!