Tackling the Tight Labor Market

By Carol Rich

It’s the challenge the home building industry has struggled with for the last five years — and locally, it’s about to get worse. The difficulties of recruiting workers, especially in skilled trades such as carpenters, plumbers and electricians, has become a chronic problem for home builders.

“Unfortunately, there isn’t a community or region that we can point to in terms of someone who has solved the issue of labor in our industry,” says BIA Executive Director, Jon Melchi. “This uncertainty means that in central Ohio, we need to be at the forefront of embracing new technologies and untraditional labor markets because it appears unlikely that the tight labor market will subsist in the short-term.” increase the need for construction workers to build everything from homes to roads.

With fewer young people choosing construction careers, baby boomers moving into retirement and sharp competition from the commercial side, home builders nationwide are drawing from a smaller pool of qualified workers. The resulting labor shortage is wreaking havoc with construction schedules and raising builders’ costs.

For years, the BIA’s Workforce Development Committee, led by co-chairs, Craig Tuckerman, President, The Tuckerman Home Group, and Ann Misiolek, Building Products Specialist, Parksite, has worked creatively and diligently to find solutions.

“I have been actively involved with this issue since 2017, when Bob Gardner, then BIA president, first established our Workforce Development Committee, and we are still dealing with many of the same issues!” observes Misiolek.

Intel estimates it will need 7,000 construction workers to build its $20 billion project in New Albany. But some local experts estimate that the total number working onsite to build Intel’s two chip factories will actually rise as high as 10,000.

To meet the expected need, local trade unions are pulling out all the stops and tripling their recruitment efforts. Union reps are holding frequent job fairs and initiating outreach to groups like women and veterans.

The excitement of working on a high-profile project like Intel is firing up enthusiasm among many of the new apprentices recruited by unions like the local United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. It’s also diverting potential home building labor to commercial work.

Tuckerman says that workers and subcontractors who had previously been working on residential projects are now taking jobs on the commercial side, primarily due to the higher pay. While he believes these workers will ultimately return to home building, the competition with commercial builders creates an additional roadblock.

Intel

Escalates Local Need For Construction Workers

In central Ohio, the arrival of Intel, plus other companies including Amazon, Google and Meta, is poised to sharply

“The challenge is pretty obvious…we have been short on labor in our industry for almost a decade and with these large new employers entering our market it has exacerbated the issue. The impact of competing with so many other companies is creating huge issues for both our builder and associate members,” says Misiolek. “Higher labor costs equate to higher cost for housing, making affordability a bigger struggle. The limited labor force has also created longer build times which again drives up costs.”

Intel’s arrival also affects builders’ costs. Tuckerman points out that recently prices for some building items have leveled off — and the price of lumber has dropped. “However, the prices we are paying for materials AND especially labor are still through the roof,” he says. “The prices for some items, like concrete, dump trucks and gravel, I think because of Intel, etc. are still crazy and still rising, even though oil prices have fallen for the past few months.”

The hunt for solutions

To continue to build homes, it’s essential that builders continue to work individually and collectively to solve labor issues and grow our pipeline of skilled workers.

From meetings with students to hiring events, the BIA has taken action through the years to try and reduce our local workforce shortage. For example, the BIA website includes a page on construction careers that includes job postings from BIA members.

The BIA Foundation has also been active in supporting workforce development. Case in point: the Foundation’s grant to Franklinton Rising, a nonprofit corporation that prepares at-risk young adults for construction careers. The program funded by the Foundation enabled BIA members to add a Franklinton Rising trainee to their team for a 30-day tryout while the nonprofit paid the trainee’s salary.

Says Misiolek: “Our biggest challenge is knowledge. Getting the word out to all levels of the available workforce about what a great career residential construction can be is extremely difficult. Emphasizing that it is not just a job to get through each day but a rewarding career that individuals can be proud to be a part of.”

She observes that more voices can help with this message and our members need to become more proactive in supporting the efforts of our Workforce Development Committee.

“One person, one company, not even one association can solve this problem. Which is why last year, we joined forces with NARI to create the Joint Workforce Development Committee to provide a stronger voice for our residential construction industry,” says Misiolek. “Changes are happening, like graduation requirements for high school students announced by ODE, which are spotlighting every angle of workforce development and we are finally moving from just talking to doing things about it. However, we do need help from our members to really be impactful.”