Young Employees Increasingly Hard to Find

I talk to contractors on the phone or in the field almost every day, whether it be for article interviews, training sessions I attend, or someone just calling up to say "hi" and offer an opinion or idea. One topic that often comes up in my conversations is a contractor's difficultly in finding young workers who want to enter the concrete business. Some business owners say today's Gen Yers and Gen Xers don't have the work ethic of previous generations. Others say that Baby Boomers have pushed their children to attend 4-year universities resulting in many young people overlooking a career in the trades. These are just some of the factors that have made it more difficult for you to find employees. A shortage of workers is taking its toll on contractors all over the country and is forcing some communities and contractors to take a proactive approach to making sure they have enough people to fill construction jobs. The construction community in Pittsburg, PA, is planning ahead for an expected construction boom by looking at billboard marketing, among other recruitment ideas. In Madison, WI, the city has allocated funds to the local building trades council to help recruit and train construction workers in some of the city's low-income neighborhoods. And in the UK's surfing capital, Newquay, a construction firm is attracting and retaining employees by letting them surf during the work day.