Bulletin E-Edition:
Constructive recruitment
Construction association sets out to debunk negative perceptions, attract younger workers
By Andrew Moore / The Bulletin
Published: October 23. 2008 4:00AM PST| order photo
Kirby Nagelhout employee Cory Waters welds Wednesday at the site of the new Campus Center at Central Oregon Community College in Bend. The Associated General Contractors recently launched a Web site to recruit younger workers to careers in construction.
Melissa Jansson / The Bulletin
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After 35 years of working as a carpenter, Clyde DeMoisy, of Bend, has put two sons through college, kept fit, avoided serious physical injury and had plenty of interesting jobs and experiences to keep his work from being anything but monotonous.
“It keeps you and your mind physically active,” said DeMoisy, working Wednesday on the Campus Center building under construction by Kirby Nagelhout Construction Co. at Central Oregon Community College.
Those are the sort of career perks the Associated General Contractors, Oregon-Columbia Chapter, based in Wilsonville, wants the state’s young people to understand. According to the association, the average age of workers in Oregon’s construction trades is 48.
As a result, Todd Hess, the association’s president, believes the state could face a crisis in its future if it doesn’t recruit more young people into those jobs.
“For a generation or two … we as a society have been steering young people away from careers in construction because some see it as a dead-end job, but there’s nothing dead end about it,” said Hess, who also owns the Todd Hess Building Co., in Portland.
The Oregon Employment Department is predicting severe work force shortages in construction and manufacturing in the next 10 years, according to a recent press release. It estimates the construction industry will grow by 14.3 percent during the next decade, and when combined with the number of workers set to retire, an estimated 30,000 new construction workers will be needed to fill construction jobs in the next 10 years.
To help find the construction workers of the future, the association recently launched a Web site, www.getconstructive.com, with the aim to educate its target audience of 18- to 28-year-olds about the perks of a construction career.
Among those perks is pay. According to the association, $28.45 is the state’s average hourly wage for an electrician; $28.71 for a plumber; and $24.84 for a mason.
Hess said the trades are finding workers but they are often entering their respective fields in their late 20s, after floating from job to job or choosing to pursue a new career. Lots of these are college graduates who realize they like working with their hands, Hess said.
“People are realizing it’s a pretty good career and typically what happens is someone gets a degree, can’t land a job, always wanted to work in construction and then we see them when they are 28, 29 years old. We would like to get them interested earlier, right off the bat, so they haven’t lost that time they could have been earning a good income, and when we needed them,” Hess said.
The association’s Web site also pitches the lifestyle that goes with construction jobs, mainly a 9-to-5 workday that doesn’t require bringing any work home. It also attempts to debunk some myths, such as the perception construction workers are uneducated and “poor guys scraping by.”
Chris Inman, a superintendant with Robinson Construction in Bend, says there are young people entering the construction trades, but doesn’t doubt more are choosing careers in computers and other technology fields, the like of which weren’t available years ago. Inman said apprentices do seem to be older than in the past, but that doesn’t always mean older workers are less productive.
“I have a carpenter here who’s 62 years old who outworks most of my younger guys,” Inman said.
Hess said construction work is physical and people interested in the work must be able-bodied and aware of its risks. But if the average age of a construction trade worker is 48, “that speaks to how long people can do this work,” Hess said.
Diane Dunbar, a career counselor at Redmond High School, said she sees plenty of students interested in the construction trades but often has trouble connecting them with opportunities or with the proper apprenticeship programs.
According to Hess, individuals interested in the construction trades can either apply for apprenticeship programs with a union or apply for work with a nonunion shop company, with the prospect of later entering an apprenticeship program with the company’s sponsorship.
Individuals also can enroll in a trade school, Hess said.
“The jobs are out there,” he said.
Andrew Moore can be reached at 541-617-7820 or at amoore@bendbulletin.com.
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