Thursday, October 14, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Skilled building labor seen as scarce

Contractors focus on trying to attract young people to trades

Apprenticeship program participant Mark Roe practices electrical installation late Tuesday at the Associated Builders & Contractors' Southern Nevada chapter office. Officials say they hope to use training programs to attract young people to building-trades careers. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

Construction employment in Las Vegas accounts for 91,900 jobs and is growing at an annual rate of about 10 percent, an August report from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation shows.

Even with those numbers, finding qualified skilled labor in the construction trades can be a challenge in Las Vegas, industry sources said.

"It varies from trade to trade and it's cyclical as well," said Warren Hardy, executive director of the Southern Nevada chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors.

"Now that it appears there's a slowdown in the housing market, there won't be a shortage in framing and drywall. That'll subside as the home market cools down. But overall, it's a concern for the industry to get quality folks."

Major users of construction services agree that a growing gap between demand and supply of skilled construction labor is a major problem facing the industry.

Recruitment, education and retention of craft workers continue to be critical issues for the industry, Cincinnati-based Construction Users Roundtable said in a June report.

That's why the local Associated Builders and Contractors chapter is focused on education, trying to get young people interested in the trades, Hardy said.

"We're in desperate need of plumbers," said Crystal Johnson, executive director of the Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors Association of Nevada. "A lot of our contractors are advertising back East and in Southern California and Arizona and Utah trying to bring people here. There's just a lack of qualified workers here."

Johnson said her association offers a four-year training program that turns out about 45 apprentice plumbers each year who work in the field and continue taking classes until they reach journeyman status.

The pay starts at about $9.50 an hour for an apprentice plumber and goes to the high-$20s for a good journeyman, she said.

Historically, the construction industry has populated its new work force from an abundant supply of 18- to 24-year-old males of limited diversity. However, the number of potential workers in this age group has steadily declined, partly due to an "image" problem, the Construction Users Roundtable report said.

"In today's society, people who do not go to college are often viewed as failures. Skilled labor is perceived as too difficult, seasonal, dirty and dangerous," the report said.

Tony Dazzio, vice president of Burke & Associates, a general contractor, said reconstruction work in Florida after hurricanes ripped through the state hasn't had much of an effect on Las Vegas' labor market.

"It hasn't been any more of a challenge for us than the ongoing challenge of trying to find good labor," he said. "We personally are always looking, always recruiting. We recruit all over the country for superintendents and project managers. That's not to say there isn't good talent in Las Vegas, but they're taken."

Cindy Nevin, executive director of the Nevada Subcontractors Association, said she hasn't heard anything about a labor shortage caused by the disaster in Florida, but she has heard complaints about rising material costs.

"That is a fear of local (subcontractors)," she said. "But Florida, that's a far ways for someone to travel when there's plenty of work here. Anybody qualified in a trade that wants to work in this valley, there's work for them."

Kathy Lee, senior business development representative for Builders & Contractors, a direct-hire and temporary staffing agency in Las Vegas, said she hasn't heard anything in her office that would suggest a labor shortage.

"That's always a struggle, to get qualified people," she said. "It doesn't really matter what time of year it is. It's feast or famine. I don't know what dictates when we have people and when we don't."

Despite talk of a lack of skilled labor, Las Vegas was somehow able to build 25,000 new homes last year, said Monica Caruso, spokeswoman for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association.

"I don't know that we have a real shortage in skilled labor in Las Vegas," Caruso said. "I go out in the field all the time and at this point in time, we are building enough homes to meet demand. That tells me we have enough skilled labor to meet the demand.

"Now, is there a company here or there? I think as you go from employer to employer, you'll find some that feel they're staffed where they need to be and others that feel they could use a few more good workers."

The hire rate in the construction industry fell to 5.1 percent in July from 6.3 percent in June, a survey released Sept. 8 by the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.

The construction industry must address its image problem and recognize the necessity of investing in training, the Construction Users Roundtable report said.