As more and more construction workers retire and the demographics of the workforce change, it is more vital than ever for employers, unions, and apprenticeship programs to expand their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Although we have been experiencing a labor shortage for quite some time, we are not recruiting tradespeople fast enough to replace the ones who are retiring. By one estimate, for every 1 skilled worker coming into the workforce, there are 5 who retire.
The lagging demographic diversity of the construction industry is escalating the workforce shortage problem. Black workers are nearly 13% of the U.S. labor force but less than 7% of the construction workforce. Additionally, about half of all U.S. workers are female but women make up only about 4% of the workers in construction trades.
A key way to address the labor shortage is to enhance efforts to recruit and retain more women and people of color. If the construction industry wants to keep up with demand, it must rethink the traditional ways of recruiting people into the industry. Most people in our industry are familiar with the acronym FBI, which stands for “friends, brothers, and in-laws,” which have been the primary sources of new tradespeople. The trades simply haven’t marketed themselves as a career opportunity to a wide audience. Add to this that for several generations American students have been told the only path to success is a college education and it’s no wonder there’s a labor shortage.
To meet the challenge of the workforce shortage, the construction industry needs to take a more systematic approach to attracting women and people of color. One very effective approach is partnering with pre apprenticeship programs such as Oregon Tradeswomen, Constructing Hope, or WRTP/BIG STEP. Another is to take a more intentional approach to marketing the trades to a younger and more diverse audience through campaigns like Choose Bigger and a more interactive approach to career fairs.
But many in the construction industry are reluctant to make efforts to recruit women because there is a false belief that women aren’t interested in going into the trades. The truth is they are interested, and for the same reasons men are. “I want to get paid, I want health insurance, I want a pension,” plumbing apprentice Leslie Cotton said. She went into the trades because her father and brother are disabled and she needed to become the breadwinner for her family. She considered going into civil engineering, but didn’t have the resources to cover $40,000 a year in tuition to go to the only college in her area that offered that degree. Like most men who go into the trades, she also likes being physically active and did not want to be stuck behind a desk.
There’s also a misconception that women are unable to perform the physically demanding work of the trades. But as sheet metal worker Carly Rush points out, one of her best mentors was a man who wasn’t a stereotypical construction worker. “He realized right off the bat that anyone could do this. He was about my size, 5’3”, so he knows you don’t have to be big to do the work. And being married to a woman sheet metal worker, he gravitates to mentoring women.” Plumber Doreen Cannon said that although the physical part of working in the trades is challenging, women should realize they can do it, even if in some cases they might have to learn how to do things differently from a man. She also points out that when she got into the trade, “I was stronger than some of those 18-year-old boys getting in and I was definitely stronger than those 65-year-old guys who were retiring. I ask people if they think it is easier to lift a pipe versus lifting people to transfer them from a hospital bed into the bathroom, because nursing is a female-dominated field.”
By overlooking nontraditional candidates, the construction industry shortchanges itself of an opportunity to recruit a new generation of the best and the brightest. It’s time to broaden our horizons.
