NAHB’s survey addressed nine trades, and the number of companies reporting a shortage has grown from 21 percent in 2012 to 56 percent today, including a gain of ten percent in 2014 and four percent last year.
Survey respondents said they were having the most trouble filling rough and finish carpentry positions, 72% and 70% respectively, as well as framers (68%) bricklayers (57%), painters (50%), electricians (48%), plumbers (47%), roofers (45%), excavators (44%) and HVAC technicians (42%).
The NAHB said current shortages are more significant than in the past, noting that even more scarce are subcontractors, who comprise about 75 percent of the labor on a single-family home, as MHProNews has learned. Some of the categories above (carpenters, bricklayers, et al) have experienced shortages of up to ten percent more than those shown, such as framing carpenters at a 78 percent lack, and plumbers at 56 percent.
Construction employment flourished in the first quarter of the year but has since slowed as the pool of existing talent ran out, resulting in the loss of 15,000 construction jobs in May.
New marketing efforts may be required to reverse the trend. ##
(Graphic credit: U. S. Dept of Labor and The Wall Street Journal)
