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While President Trump continues to argue the economy can be reinvigorated through substantial tax cuts and protectionist policies, evidence continues to mount that the actual problem throttling back growth is a lack of workers, not a lack of jobs.
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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The third annual Pasadena Independent School District Career and Technical Education Business Partner Breakfast was held last month at the Dr. Kirk Lewis Career and Technical High School (CTHS) in Houston, Texas. Business supporters had the opportunity to network with each other and hear updates about the growing Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs offered there.
May 25, 2017
Seasonally adjusted construction employment rose in 39 states from April 2016 to April 2017, held steady in North Carolina and West Virginia, and fell in nine states and the District of Columbia, an AGC analysis of BLS data released on Friday showed.
May 24, 2017
Standing at the window of an office in the Texas Medical Center (TMC), I was struck by two things. First, how big and diverse the TMC is. Ten years ago there were 42 institutions included in the TMC. Today, there are 54 located on 1345 acres. On any weekday, the population of that medical center is greater than a large portion of the towns and communities in this nation, over 125,000 with 106,000 employees.
May 23, 2017
Hello and welcome to all of you that are working hard in the workforce and the construction trades. I had a very interesting discussion with one of my students this week. His request at first sounds pretty legit, but when you examine it further I believe that this may be one of the main reasons why many give up way too easily. This student’s request went something like this: “I need you to show me in the textbook exactly what I need to study, so that I don’t waste my time studying things I don’t need.”
May 22, 2017
Don’t think that it is just the young and inexperienced worker on your team who is more likely to fall; be certain to train all of your field crews, even your foreman, in ladder safety so that they will all be able to go home to their families tonight and come back to work tomorrow.
May 19, 2017
Steel and iron producers in Texas are hoping that before the legislative session ends this month, lawmakers will approve a bill prohibiting the use of cheaper foreign steel in taxpayer-funded construction unless a certain cost threshold is met. Under Senate Bill 1289 by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, domestic steel would be required for use in government construction such as office buildings, highways, and water infrastructure unless doing so would cause the entire cost of the project to rise more than 20 percent.
May 18, 2017
The following article was originally published by the Centered on Safety website. Reprinted with permission.
In the United States, women represent less than 9 percent of construction workers, according to 2014 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and only 1.3 percent are working as operating engineers or other construction equipment operators. Other countries report similar statistics. There are a variety of reasons women don’t consider construction as a career path.
May 17, 2017
Ramos is both an exception in the modern construction industry and exactly the kind of worker that local employers are struggling to cultivate amid a generations-long downturn in the skill and availability of construction labor.
May 16, 2017
Editor’s note: Construction Citizen is proud to partner with AGC America to bring you AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson's Data DIGest. Check back each week to get Ken's expert analysis of what's happening in our industry. The producer price index (PPI) for final demand in April, not seasonally adjusted, increased 0.4% from March and 2.5% year-over-year (y/y) from April 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Thursday. AGC posted tables and an explanation focusing on construction prices and costs. Final demand includes goods, services and five types of nonresidential buildings that BLS says make up 34% of total construction.
May 15, 2017
