Before the pandemic started in March 2020, a much higher percentage of metal building contractors and erectors reported that the labor shortage was the biggest challenge they faced compared to after the pandemic. In Metal Construction News’ reporting on the Top Metal Builders, we have been asking respondents about the biggest challenges they faced in the previous year.
Lack of respect for skilled craft people and their talents undermine our ability to attract workers
Before the pandemic, about two-thirds of metal builders said it was the shortage of skilled labor. In 2020, though, that changed so that only about 25% said it was the biggest challenge they faced. In 2021, roughly the same percentage agreed.
What took its place was a variety of challenges that were unique to the pandemic. In 2020, just managing the fallout from COVID-19 was a struggle for metal builders. They quickly got a handle on that, though, only to face new supply chain challenges that arose because of the pandemic. Plummeting demand in 2020 for some building products such as steel was quickly met by sharply increasing demand. When such seismic changes happen in a matter of months, it’s hard for the supply chain to react. And when the supply chain is also battling its own issues with COVID-19, such as a shortage of truckers, dock workers, warehouse technicians and others, that means those seismic shifts became huge choke points.
“There is a fundamental difference between the labor issues the industry faces and the supply chain problems that have arisen. The labor shortage is chronic; supply chain disruption is acute.”
The result? Metal builders and contractors faced increasing difficulty to meet construction schedules and the lead times for material deliveries stretched from days or weeks to months. Even then, contractors often had to find alternative materials or building plans needed to change to accommodate the shortage. There is a fundamental difference between the labor issues the industry faces and the supply chain problems that have arisen. The labor shortage is chronic; supply chain disruption is acute.
Like health problems, they require different attitudes and approaches. A dislocated shoulder is an acute problem; arthritis in the shoulder joint is chronic. We expect the acute challenges to be fixed quickly and indications are that the supply chain is shaking off the difficulties and beginning to come back into its usual mostly efficient shape. Sometimes an acute problem can be resolved with little or almost no attention.
Chronic issues, such as the labor shortage, are never solved quickly. In fact, we often just go along bearing the inconvenience of a sore shoulder and taking a little aspirin to resolve its symptoms rather than addressing its causes.
I expect next year the top metal builders will report that the biggest challenge they faced in 2022 was the labor shortage, again outstripping all the other challenges.
It’s good news that the construction industry is resilient enough to absorb a hit like the pandemic and the supply chain disruption. But it’s also bad news that the construction industry has still done very little to address its skilled labor shortage. There are lots of efforts across lots of entities such as trade associations and trade unions, but the needle hasn’t really moved on our skilled labor shortage. In fact, it hasn’t moved for more than 30 years, which is when I first started writing about the skilled labor shortage.
The needle will never budge until we address the root causes and stop treating just the symptoms. And the root cause of our labor shortage is a lack of respect for the talents and skills of the men and women doing the work on the job site.
