In 2008, the global economy collapsed. Among the causes of the great recession? The failure of the residential mortgage industry and the investing that was based on those mortgages. As a result, the residential construction industry was hit the hardest and many construction workers lost their jobs. By the time the economy started to show signs of recovery, over one million skilled construction workers had walked away from the construction industry for good.
Construction management is a lucrative career that is in high demand.
The Slow Road To A Painful Recovery
The housing industry continued to struggle until around 2012, when contractors started to notice a very disturbing problem. In 2012, 21 percent of construction companies in the United States said that they were going to experience some degree of labor shortage for the year. By 2016, that number had skyrocketed to 56 percent and looked like it had no end in sight.
To go along with this, residential construction spending was rising at a steady rate of between three and five percent per year. This meant that there was a steady increase in work that could not be done because of a lack of labor. With President Trump insisting on building his border wall, the construction industry is facing historic labor shortages in the foreseeable future.
Attracting New Workers
One of the challenges union and non-union companies face is finding skilled workers and engineers to replace the millions who left the industry when the bottom fell out in 2008. The construction industry dragged its feet for years and ignored the potentially devastating effects of a shallow worker pool, but now unions and non-union companies are stepping up the efforts to bring in new talent.
Skilled worker training programs are being started all over the country, and minority groups are starting to be welcomed into an industry that had been predominantly Caucasian and male for decades. Not only are laborers and skilled workers starting to be recruited, but four-year colleges are starting to respond to the urgent need for construction professionals.
From 2016 to 2017, enrollment in construction management related degree programs at four-year universities has gone up 26.4 percent. Construction management is made up of a bit of business knowledge, engineering, and architecture. When the residential construction industry bottomed out in 2008, this type of construction professional started to disappear. Workers are needed to build the structures, but the need for construction managers is just as urgent.
Be a part of the resurgence of the construction industry by getting your construction degree at a four-year school.
Now Is The Time To Start
Interest in construction management degrees is still not outpacing the need for new construction managers. Anyone who loves the idea of managing projects and building structures without getting their hands too dirty needs to consider a degree in construction management. As long as demand considerably outweighs supply, construction management will be a lucrative career for any aspiring business professional.
If you want to get a head start on your construction management career, then browse courses by state on PDH Contractors and build your knowledge base now. This need for construction management professionals will only intensify, and utilizing the tools at PDH Contractors will put you ahead of the game before you even start your first college course.