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Governor Abbott had asked lawmakers to address 20 subjects in the month-long special session ranging from public restroom access to the state's unacceptably high maternal mortality rate as well as new abortion restrictions. While legislation was passed on roughly half of the 20 topics, construction permitting was not one of them.
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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In looking at the Texas Workforce Commission’s latest employment numbers, the Houston metro area lost 18,300 jobs – a seasonal amount – in July, with construction accounting for 5,000 of those losses, in large part due to the wind down in the industrial/petrochemical work on the east side of Houston. This puts Houston’s construction employment down 4,800 jobs since the start of the year and negative year over year. The slide shown here from Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors, shows Houston, overall, has had positive job growth in 2017, having added 6,900 jobs year to date.
September 11, 2017
With a massive rebuilding effort set to get underway, the need is greater than ever for an alternative to deportations and a wall meant to keep out many of the very people who will be responsible for restoration of the Gulf Coast.
September 08, 2017
A number of companies are in the process of finding interim space. Many companies have been forced out of the buildings and are making plans for their employees to work from home for the next two to six months while their buildings are drained, the wet drywall and insulation ripped out, buildings dried out, sprayed with anti-microbial and anti-mold solutions before being restored and re-occupied.
September 07, 2017
It is too early to know what impact the devastation from Hurricane Harvey will have on construction materials prices and supply. There have been immediate price surges for motor fuels because of refinery shutdowns; these will affect supply all along pipelines to the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest that depend on Gulf Coast production or imports.
September 06, 2017
The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office in Mount Holly, New Jersey has arrested three men and charged them with Financial Facilitation of Criminal Activity (First Degree), which is more commonly known as money laundering. This follows a nine-month investigation revealing an illegal construction finance scheme involving millions of dollars. Approximately $450,000 in cash and deposited funds were seized by authorities, along with nine vehicles, three motorcycles and a collection of 30 high-end watches. One of the confiscated vehicles is a fully-restored 1967 Pontiac CP Tempest GTO.
September 05, 2017
This Labor Day comes at a moment when Houston and the Gulf Coast will need more blue-collar tradesmen and women than ever before thanks to the devastation left by Hurricane Harvey over the last week. While we at Construction Citizen honor the skilled workforce, we also recognized this simple truth: It will be more difficult to find the people who will do the work.
September 04, 2017
Houston’s July unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, down from 5.3 percent in June and from 5.8 percent in July ’16. Texas’ unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in July, down from 4.7 percent in June and 5.1 percent in July ’16. The U.S. rate was 4.6 percent in July, up from 4.5 percent in June but down from 5.1 percent in July ’16. The rates are not seasonally adjusted.
September 01, 2017
Filling craft positions and some salaried positions remains as great a challenge for contractors as it was a year ago, according to participants in AGC's 2017 Workforce Survey, released on Tuesday.
August 31, 2017
After reporting on hurricanes for more than a decade, I can tell you one of the unfortunate realities is that unscrupulous contractors will absolutely try to take advantage of those with significant or even minor property damage in their quest to make a quick buck.
August 30, 2017
