High Demand for New Trades Workers Detroit is aiming to encourage students and adults to join the skilled trades industry. Octavous Crosby, 36, has been on an upward trajectory with a steady paycheck — and no student loan debt — since entering the construction trades nearly two decades ago. “It’s not a job for me. When I come to work every day, I enjoy it,” said Crosby, who graduated from the Detroit vocational high school, Randolph Career Technical Center. Detroit-based Bedrock is encouraging more area residents to pursue similar careers in the construction trades to help alleviate a local
labor shortage as the real estate firm ramps up work on three major building projects in the city. Bedrock has teamed up with Barton Malow and Turner Construction to hold a construction trades job expo at Cobo Center. The expo is aimed at expanding the size of the local construction workforce because there is a shortage of skilled trades workers in metro Detroit, according to Dannis Mitchell, Barton Malow’s community engagement manager.
“Our industry is still experiencing the shortage,” Mitchell said. “A lot of the baby boomers are now aging out, and unfortunately our industry did not do the most stellar job in training people to backfill those jobs.” One reason for the shortage was past decisions by high schools to de-emphasize the skilled trades as a career path. Some schools even shuttered their vocational programs and shop classes. Because Michigan’s current shortage of skilled trades workers is so acute, the next economic downturn shouldn’t be devastating for those who are just now getting into those careers, said Binke, the construction recruitment firm CEO. Click here for full article from the Detroit Free Press.
