Posted on 06/03/2013 1:54:06 PM PDT by posterchild
Sales of new homes are on a tear, but builders can't find enough workers to keep up with the demand.
After the housing bust, many workers left the building trade in droves, said Michael Fink, CEO of Leewood Real Estate Group in Trenton, N.J.
"A lot of our workers are immigrants and they went back to their home countries," he said. "Our subcontractors can't get people; they can't start on time; they can't get things done on time."
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported in March that 46% of its members say they have fallen behind schedule on finishing projects, 15% turned down jobs and 9% lost or canceled sales because they can't find enough workers.
That could have some big ramifications for the broader housing market. Housing starts fell sharply in April to 853,000 and experts project residential construction will grow by about 25% annually, according to the NAHB. At that pace, it could take more than four years to get back to early 2006 building levels, when housing starts peaked at 2.3 million, according to Census Bureau data.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
This is just anecdotal, but I know a guy who owns a flooring business and he’s working seven days a week. Some of his business is government, which is going great. Some of it was tax refunds, which happens every year; people use the refund to tile the floors. But it has gone on a long time. I still have a difficult time believing there’s any general recovery going on, though. Anybody have an explanation? Is there a recovery?
just go to the nearest liberal arts college, and ask for recent graduates. they’re all unemployed.
Around the middle of the country, one will find illegal aliens working at all most all contractors' formerly well paid jobs o American citizens!
Stealth pro-amnesty piece.
What this article is REALLY about.
My friends who are contractors are all busy. I know, because I ask every couple of weeks. That being said, the surrounding area is not economically-depressed.
Here in the midwest, building appears to have gone from essentially zero in 2009/2010 to maybe 40% of the 2006/2007 level currently.
A lot of guys in the building biz had to find something else or starve.
Of course the last peak was fueled by poor credit.
With unemployment in double digits? Apparently many of those on UI have no intention of working.
And - of course - because it is impossible for employers to pay higher wages, we must immediately let in twenty or thirty million more illegal aliens to do the work.
Close down HHS and I guarantee there will be an ample supply of capable workers willing to perform the duties of home building immediately!
Reality Post of the Day.
Two contractor friends of mine have more work than they can handle. They end up turning down jobs.
Other tech friends of mine are unemployed, waiting for their cushy jobs to come back.
I have a new appreciation for my job, that’s for sure.
Yep.
“Stealth pro-amnesty piece.”
I agree. There are way too many unemployed. Of course, most of the construction workers I knew appeared to be shiftless drunks. If they can make it between the Obama phone and the EBT card and the endless programs to help them, why work? (You can, apparently, buy anything on an EBT from drugs to alcohol to lap dances; or so I’ve read. Down the street from me is the “EBT Motel.”)
In the Houston area, I’ve noticed more non-Hispanic workers on construction jobs than I’ve seen in years.
The man has a problem. He can’t find labor *at the price he’s paying*.
Perhaps the solution is to pay the prevailing market wage?
It sounds to me like those 16,500 new IRS workers really put a dent in the construction labor force.
Yeah. "Now that things are going good, why can't they come? Why can't they stay?"
When the unemployment rate is < 3% and every able bodied person is off welfare, that's when. And only if legally.
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