A new year and a new decade have arrived. 2020. What would you say if we asked you, “What does the New Year look like for your construction business?”
If you are an optimist, you will probably say that this will be a great year for your business.
If you are a pessimist, you will likely say that a recession and drop in new projects are looming, especially in this election year. Otherwise, you might say that things will likely be the same for your business this year. There are also some older and maybe even “wiseacres” out there who will respond with, “It depends.”
Most of us in the AEC industry, no matter how we see this year, will likely couch our view of 2020 by looking at our current project pipelines to see what is already working or coming our way in the near future. For a broader view of 2020, the AGC (Association of General Contractors) and Sage Construction and Real Estate have joined forces once again to survey 1,000 US firms and they recently presented their findings in a most interesting report entitled, Strong Demand for Work Amid Stronger Demand for Workers: The 2020 Construction Hiring and Business Outlook Report.
Their key findings indicate that “worker quality and the craft worker shortage” are the top two concerns for the respondents nationwide. That issue will likely become more critical as this decade moves forward. The gap between the supply and demand curves will grow larger if the economy continues at its current pace. The gap means more competition for the skilled workforce and higher concern from the GCs over the quality of the subs available to perform on their builds. It seems that many firms are scrambling to hire and keep the qualified skilled workers by raising salaries, offering bonuses, providing ongoing skills training and creating career tracks at a pace we have not seen for some time.
One of my futurist friends used to say to me, “The future that you ordered has arrived.” Here comes 2020, a year of incredible opportunity, challenge and continued change. We know that you have your own view of 2020 for your business, but if you want to see what 1,000 of your peers say in the survey, both from a national and a regional basis, you should take a look at the AGC/Sage report. Who knows, you might find some new ideas that you can implement in your firm this year.
