Without skilled workers, America will not be able to fully capitalize on key opportunities at the rate and efficiency needed to support businesses trying to expand within its borders according to Anthony Johnson.
The U.S. needs more skilled workers, and this need is putting immense pressure on employers across multiple industries. We can no longer afford to ignore the critical necessity of closing the expanding gap in our workforce.
One of the sectors hit the hardest in the current shortage is skilled craft labor. Trades workers are integral to the success of multiple industries. As an advocate for progress in the construction industry, I feel it's my responsibility to be an advocate for reform.
Industry leaders must proactively tackle this crisis head-on because the numbers look bleak: McKinsey reported that there will be a shortfall of 300,000 engineers and 90,000 skilled technicians in the U.S. by 2030. The U.S. semiconductor sector could face a shortage of up to 90,000 workers over the next few years, a Deloitte report said.
There's funding to fix roads, bridges and other big projects, but there are not enough workers. In February 2022, the Association of Builders and Contractors predicted that the U.S. would need to attract 650,000 more workers "on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2022" to meet demand. And, in October 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics said there were 423,000 construction job openings in the U.S.
Without skilled workers, America will not be able to fully capitalize on key opportunities at the rate and efficiency needed to support businesses trying to expand within our borders.
Exploring The Role Of Foreign Workers
From my perspective, exploring the role of foreign workers in addressing the labor deficit and stimulating economic growth is a transformative solution. Foreign-born laborers accounted for nearly one-fifth of the labor force in 2022. If granted more accessible access to the U.S. labor pool, foreign workers could boost the GDP by "up to $1.7 trillion over the next decade," according to the Center for American Progress.
From my perspective, relying solely on promoting trade careers and training may be insufficient to meet the surging demand. While the U.S. offers exceptional educational opportunities to college students, our student visa system presents hurdles for talented foreign-born students to remain in the country after graduation. Likewise, I believe the mechanisms for sponsoring skilled, nonprofessional labor for the construction industry can fall short with the current visa system.
Currently, companies that can prove the job they are hiring for is in shortage can apply to sponsor temporary, non-agricultural workers under the H-2B visa program. However, the number of visas that can be issued under the H-2B temporary work visa scheme is capped at 66,000 per year annually, though a temporary rule has made an additional 64,716 H-2B visas available for 2024, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This red tape is apparent in September's unemployment figures from the Association of Building Contractors, which released data that says even though the construction unemployment rate decreased slightly to 3.8% with the addition of 11,000 jobs, unemployment across all industries remained unchanged at 3.8%.
Furthermore, H2B visas are industry-agnostic; currently, H-2A and H-2B visas are classified as "agricultural" and "non-agricultural," which may pit industries with a labor shortage in competition with one another.
Industry leaders can consider advocating for reforming these policies, as some in the construction space have already done. So far, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has proposed a rule "to modernize and improve the H-2A and H-2B visa programs and improve program efficiency," according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
Industry Insights And The Future Of Skilled Apprenticeship Programs
On the demand side, more electricians will be needed to meet the ever-increasing electricity needs of our nation. To me, this is concerning, considering the number of electricians employed in the U.S. in 2022 was 1,105,860, according to IBISWorld, and "more electricians retire every year than are replaced," the Wall Street Journal reported.
Under the Registered Apprenticeship Program, construction companies can be granted tax credits for providing an end-to-end apprenticeship certification program for trades like electricians and more. “Green” companies training skilled workers with a Registered Apprenticeship Program might qualify for tax credits that include the following categories:
- Clean Fuel Production Credit
- Investment Tax Credit
- Advanced Energy Project Credit
- Energy-Efficient Commercial Buildings Deduction
- New Energy Efficient Home Credit
Companies' incentives to train lifelong skilled workers in the trades to help replenish a shrinking labor pool have never been greater, and the jobs the government is willing to subsidize training for are vast. Here's a searchable database broken down by industry. Leaders who want to see an end to the construction labor shortage can act now by consulting with legal experts on how to implement these programs in a way that allows them to solve the labor shortage while training the next generation of skilled laborers who will build the green economy on our journey to carbon net-zero.
It's also important to promote trade careers and enable access to resources across education systems by partnering with trade schools and local school districts. While decisions on these matters may ultimately rest with the federal government, industry leaders can advocate for comprehensive solutions that address labor shortages and fuel economic prosperity by cutting red tape in the short term and expanding access to federal grant money promoting job training initiatives.
The benefits of advocating for immigration regulations and implementing widespread apprenticeship programs at a national level in areas like the southeast, northwest and southwest, where green construction and manufacturing jobs are booming, will provide the construction industry the ability to pull itself up by its bootstraps while solving a macroeconomic issue that affects our future competitiveness as a nation in the green manufacturing and building space. We've solved bigger issues in the past; the United States is all about innovation, collaboration and dynamic problem-solving to accomplish the seemingly impossible.
This hardhatOPINION was written for Forbes by Anthony Johnson President of Clayco’s Industrial Business Unit
You can follow our WhatsAPP channel for informative content on the hardhatINDUSTRY and updates on hardhatVACANCIES. Click here to view and follow.
Comments
Post a Comment