Residential contractors report an especially severe labor shortage in the North Bay area, KTVU-TV reports.
“The situation is dire. There was a worker shortage before the pandemic and before our tragic fires from three years ago. It was bad then as a problem. Now, it’s a full fledged crisis,” North Coast Builders Exchange CEO Keith Woods told the Fox broadcaster.
While the pandemic slowed down construction work slightly, more than 40,000 more homes are needed just to catch up and meet demand in the North Bay. Worker shortages remain rampant, the broadcast report says.
In the North Bay alone 40,000 more homes are needed just to catch up and meet demand.
“There’s very few weeks that go by that our organization doesn’t hear from our thousand plus members about workers. ‘Do you have any workers? Entry level? Experienced?’ They are really in short supply,” Woods said.
Many parents discourage their children to take up construction careers and there are far too few women. Though some contractors will hire to train, the Builder’s Exchange has two programs to get people shovel ready in an industry where the pay starts higher and goes up quicker.
“For every five workers retiring, only one coming in,” said Builders Exchange workforce development director Robin Bartholow.
Bartholow leads the North Bay Construction Corps, a program for high school seniors.
“Building skills that we know are really important to entry level employees and so we work with then over the four and a half to five moths to instill those basic skills like how to read a tape measure, basic construction math, how to use power tools,” said Bartholow.
The Exchange also works closely with Santa Rosa Junior College to teach more sophisticated skills, techniques and technologies, to speed placement and career advancement.
But many workers are needed right this second.
“I would pay a ridiculous amount of money to get a qualified person in here. I would hire 15 people today,” said contractor Michael Wolff, who also says ads produced no results and many qualified workers prefer to stay at home on stimulus or double dip by working under the table.
“Unless you have a strong work ethic and a desire to get out there and do something, why would you?” Wolff was quoted as saying.
