Businesses in every state are looking for employees. Many blame COVID-19 while others blame the government for the stimulus package. They are definitely not helping but the truth is the labor shortage started long before the pandemic hit.
Job openings increased 998,000 in April, including 391,000 in leisure and hospitality, 108,000 in trade and transportation, and 102,000 in manufacturing as more states lifted Covid-19 restrictions. Yet new hires increased by a mere 69,000.
Employers filled about one in 15 new positions. Worker shortages are contributing to supply-chain bottlenecks and higher prices for businesses and consumers.
The off-site construction industry, which is seeing a rapid rise in acceptance by investors, builders, and developers, over the past decade, had been discussing ways to find more production line workers years before the pandemic. The declining number of trade schools is thought to be a major contributor to our industry’s labor problems.
Improving America’s failing public K-12 schools, which many labor experts consider the root of America’s skilled-worker shortage, will leave off-site factories that can’t find enough workers to turn to more automation and standardization.
Although some of the problems currently facing the off-site construction industry can certainly be blamed on COVID-19, the labor shortage, especially the skilled labor shortage, has been with us for quite some time before anyone ever heard of a leak at a Chinese laboratory.
The question then becomes “What is the real root of the labor shortage and how do we begin looking for a solution?”
As long as the off-site construction industry simply waits for ‘someone else’ to find answers to the skilled labor shortage, we will continue to look to ways to fill those jobs with high priced machinery and robotics, which although could be a good solution for many factories, will cost millions to install and maintain.
If you think factories are having a hard time finding production workers, just wait a few years and see how many factories can’t find enough maintenance workers or programmers for all those new computerized robots they thought would speed up production and make up for the shortage of human workers.
Gary Fleisher is the Managing Director and contributor to the Modcoach Network and its affiliated blogs.
Email at [email protected]
