Young People Don’t Want Construction Jobs. That’s a Problem for the Housing Market.

tsuke said:
labor shortage

suggestion 1 raise wages

companies: NO!

lol.
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Best to not imply capitalistic solutions, comrade. Vlad won’t be pleased.

Anyone who has worked with cinder blocks or mixing mortar knows even the laborers should make more [way more] than burger flippers. Mixing mortar properly is a low level skill—it’s actually pretty easy to screw up. Carrying block is pure mule labor.

But with so much cheap labor floating around it has kept the wages for such jobs down. Raise the wages, and they will start being filled by young people.
 
Dirt McGirt said:
My father and brother are in the construction industry and we were talking about this awhile back. I've spent my entire career in the green industry and the labor woes are very similar so we all were able to commiserate.

My dad's main complaint was that people just don't want to do the work anymore, regardless of pay. He starts his general laborers off at $15 an hour, which isn't too bad for people with a high school diploma or less. His skilled guys do much better than that and he can't find anyone to fill the jobs and it seems to be getting that way across the board in these manual labor trades.

The points listed in the article are pretty much spot on, but I think the bigger issue is that the blue collar worker is disappearing quickly and it's not just in the construction industry. I think you're right that technology and the push for everyone to go to college has had a big impact on this, and as such young people don't have the same skill sets that they did 20 or 30 years ago. If working with power tools, or manual labor is a foreign concept to a young person, then they most likely aren't going to gravitate towards a trade or blue collar industry. And this sounds awful to say but when you don't have people that view these types of jobs as a career you're often left with less than motivated and unambitious workers to choose from.
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Bravo! From where I sit there is so much truth in this post.
 
Quetzalcoatl said:
No, I don't want to do it because I don't want a knee replacement by the time I'm 45. Construction @#$& your body up.
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This is a representation that seems to say that everyone who goes into construction will have health problems as a result in their later years. Improvements have been made to working conditions that affect long term health of workers...but nothing is certain in any profession. I read an article the other day that pointed to a study which showed a higher rate of Alzheimer’s and dementia among school teachers. So I don’t become a teacher because I will get Alzheimer’s?

Whatever I choose to do as a profession can possibly lead to health problems.

I have to go to work but will continue this post later...
 
leaningright said:
This is a representation that seems to say that everyone who goes into construction will have health problems as a result in their later years. Improvements have been made to working conditions that affect long term health of workers...but nothing is certain in any profession. I read an article the other day that pointed to a study which showed a higher rate of Alzheimer’s and dementia among school teachers. So I don’t become a teacher because I will get Alzheimer’s?

Whatever I choose to do as a profession can possibly lead to health problems.

I have to go to work but will continue this post later...
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Well, having personally seen it in much of my family, I can attest to the accuracy of my statement.
 
cawacko said:
Your article claims construction jobs pay well while others here are saying they don't. So which is it?
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You overlooked my post.

My previous employer just hired 25 young straight out of college Project Construction Managers

They make good money.

Your post of FOS!
 
This article insinuates young people don't want to work.

It's putting them in the same republican category as Blacks who don't want to work.

I see right through the BS!
 
Quetzalcoatl said:
Well, having personally seen it in much of my family, I can attest to the accuracy of my statement.
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I can attest that the morons working at my house two months ago who demoed (sp) the kitchen didn't wear even those little white masks, and there
was, at a minimum, wood dust visible everywhere. Apparently many disregard basic safety precautions. The old school carpenter wasn't wearing one when he cut
and usually not goggles either.
 
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