The green building sector is expanding rapidly post-recession. Will there be enough workers to fill demand?
This may come as a big surprise: The U.S. commercial construction sector is facing a shortage of skilled workers.
After a period of steep decline in commercial construction stemming from the 2008 financial crisis — forcing mass layoffs throughout the industry — that seems like an absurd notion. But activity is picking back up.
By 2015, non-residential construction is projected to grow 73 percent compared to 2011, increasing demand for skilled workers.
With nearly half of all nonresidential activity by 2015 set to be “green,” workers with experience in energy efficiency, water efficiency, responsible site management, air quality, and green building certification will be the highest in demand. That’s according to a survey of industry companies conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction.
The boom in the green building space is good news. But will there be enough people to fulfill market needs?
The McGraw-Hill survey shows that companies fear a shortage of potential employees with in-demand skills over the coming years. The shortage will be caused by three main factors: A wave of retiring baby boomers; a decline in workers with experience due to mass layoffs after the recession; and a thinning pipeline of students.
More than 85 percent of engineering & design firms, and more than 90 percent of general contractors say it will be difficult to find skilled employees to meet the boom in demand for green projects. In October, McGraw-Hill reported that 35 percent of workers have green jobs in the sector; by 2014, 45 percent will have green jobs.
In order to find employees with new skills, meet demand for greener buildings, and make their businesses more competitive, McGraw-Hill urges companies to start building a plan immediately:
If an organization does not already have a green strategy, it needs to develop one. With green projects and green jobs already accounting for one third of the market and still growing, in order to stay competitive, all involved in the industry need to their approach to green, including finding green skilled workers, capitalizing on existing green enterprise and their internal green experts and emphasizing additional green training.
The companies surveyed agreed. According to McGraw-Hill, 71 percent of firms say having certified/accredited employees help increase competitiveness; 68 percent say having green certified employees will help them expand business.
In January, the Obama Administration came under fire because green jobs training programs supported by the stimulus were not placing workers at expected rates. Those criticisms were based upon a flawed report from the Inspector General that didn’t take into account “incumbent” workers or people currently in training programs.
Those problems aside, many of the worker placement programs didn’t ramp up like many supporters hoped. But this industry survey shows why a commitment to green workforce training is so important.
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This is the first technological revolution to be embraced by only one side of the political spectrum. As we enter an era of great opportunity, how do we account for the deafening silence from the right? Not only are they deniers of climate change, they are also deniers of the lucrative technologies that could solve it.
The GOP are deniers of anything that does not advance the GOP agenda. “We the People” be damned. Total moral, ethical and rational blinders are well secured with reams of blood money from the profits of the extraction, exploitation and pollution of the commons. Accepting any limits on that ability is the equivalent of suicide, as they have nothing else to offer. They have backed themselves into the corner of irrelevancy and rather than admit defeat they are willing to scuttle the ship of state.
Hold on now, I’ve worked on scores of green buildings from both republican an democratic clients. we need to end the dialectic between the right and left if we are ever going to forcefully attack climate change. The Comcast building – the tallest green building in the world at the time was built by conservatives….now the empire state building leed EB was just finished
i find it to be much grayer and see more hope from the right than you communicate.
I admit that I should have been more specific in my word choice and said something like “much of the GOP powers that be”… On the other hand can any of the “true conservatives” continue to call themselves “GOP” with the present agenda? Those folk represent the “grayer” area that I believe do have a problem deciding, but show promise. There is bipartisan wiggle room for debate but not between ecocide and survival.