“The traditional labor pool of young, white men who are the children of construction workers does not exist anymore. They went to college,” University of Massachusetts Labor Resource Center Director of Research Susan Moir said.
With less men on the work site, women are beginning to take lead. Men are stepping into different career paths which is causing a labor shortage in the construction industry. At the same time, a significant percentage of women are falling short on employment and are looking in other directions.
As viewed by the Massachusetts’ leading construction voices, this is a great opportunity to advance their mission to see a 20% increase of women in the construction workforce by 2020 statewide.
After experiencing destruction from recent hurricanes, time is crucial to rebuild but difficult to do so, due to the construction labor shortage. 69% of contractors have already struggled to fill positions even before Hurricane Harvey.
Multiple campaigns have been launched to solve this shortage and encourage more young women to consider the construction workforce. Institutions such as middle schools and high schools are even promoting the high-skill, high-paying construction industry. “It’s time to drop all the senseless objections and hire the most qualified people for the job, which will include telling women, in campaigns like this, that if women want to do this work, the industry wants them.” – Tradeswomen’s Issues co-founder and New England Regional Council of Carpenters, Liz Skidmore.
We hope to see an impactful change within the construction workforce and AEC in general. We look forward to being part of this transformation in our industry.
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Courtesy of The Policy Group on Tradeswomen’s Issues Carpenter Larissa Andujar on a construction site in Boston (Bisnow)
