In Austin, there doesn’t appear to be a shortage of people available to construction companies, instead, there is simply too much construction happening.
We’re back to the Law of “Supply and Demand”. Too much construction while the labor supply remains stagnant means the labor force is spread over too many projects.
In 2017, just 5 years ago, Austin had 72 new projects on the books. But 2021 found a whopping 221 new projects. Simply do the math. A skilled construction labor force that can’t keep up with these 221 projects.
There’s a shortage of construction workers in Central Texas. As Austin attracts more businesses and people, there are fewer workers to construct homes and buildings.
Jeff Light, vice president of operations at Hoar Construction, said the skyline will only grow bigger. There’s a lot of movement in the city, and it’s been hard to keep up.
Tanner Potts, who works with Hoar Construction said because of the staffing shortage, they’ve had to get creative.
“We have a lot of materials that are coming prefabricated now, so we have less manpower on the job,” said Potts. “We have a lot of materials coming in already ready to install.”
They’ve had bathrooms and exterior walls of a building built off-site. Pipes and electrical equipment have also been made beforehand. This has saved a lot of time and has allowed them to work without the extra hands. They’ve also noticed that building things off-site is more cost-efficient at times.
Despite this, workers are still needed. There’s no better time to go into construction because companies are paying more money but the people they are attracting are mostly inexperienced in construction while many have never worked outside of the office or “work from home” environment.
Now multiply Austin’s construction situation by 1,000 cities and towns across the US and we begin to see that labor is not the real problem, it’s all the new construction our country needs.
The Law of Supply and Demand!
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Gary Fleisher is Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and the Offsite Builder. Email at [email protected]
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