SHOW US THE $$$
Demand for construction professionals in the post-recession era has pushed pay levels up 10% since 2008, says an Oct. 15 compensation survey by FMI Corp. While pay is up for a variety of positions, a push by firms for new business gave marketing managers the steepest hike (see chart). "The industry is focusing on levers of growth and efficiency that were neglected in the past," says survey author Mike Rose of FMI, noting that new complexities in business acquisition require higher-skilled and better-paid employees. The push for technology also generated a 30% bump in base pay for BIM professionals. Jobs with the slowest pay growth included project managers, project engineers and general foremen. Says FMI, "Commoditization of construction is forcing the industry to revise go-to-market strategies and channels for new business as well as the talent pool."
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
UK CONSTRUCTION services giant Balfour Beatty plc has named Leo Quinn as CEO, effective on Jan. 1. He was group CEO of QinetiQ Group plc, a $2.5-billion British defense and security contractor that he is credited with turning around since 2008. Walter M. Sanders has been elevated to president of Day & Zimmermann NPS, the power maintenance contracting unit of Philadelphia-based Day & Zimmermann Group Inc. He joined the firm in 2011 from a previous role as senior vice president for power construction operations at The Shaw Group Inc. White Electrical Construction Co., Atlanta, has promoted 14-year veteran and vice president Jeff Filippo to president and CEO. He succeeds Gary Clodfelter, who becomes president emeritus until his retirement at year's end. Robert V. Pragada has joined The Brock Group, Houston, one of the largest U.S. industrial services subcontractors, as president and CEO. In those roles, he succeeds Jeff Davis, who continues as chairman. Pragada was senior vice president of global sales at Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
MARCELLUS SHALE BOOMS
OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENTin the five-state Northeast U.S. Marcellus shale region has generated more than 45,000 new construction jobs, says an Oct. 16 study commissioned by building trades and sector union employers. Researchers at the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations studied employment data on more than 1,300 union and nonunion projects in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and West Virginia between 2008 and 2014. The report says that Marcellus shale development spending in 2014 totals about $6.5 billion to date—up from $5 billion the previous year. More than 4,600 construction jobs were created in 2013, with about 9 million labor hours recorded. That is a 40% increase over 2012, say the researchers. The study did not break out data on the mix of union and non-union hours worked.
CREW SAVES WOMAN JUMPER
Subcontractor Thomas Industrial Coatings Inc., credits a Milwaukee bridge-painting project location and the quick thinking of its work crew, as well as the firm's safety procedures, with saving the life of a jumper on Oct. 11. The firm's Facebook page says that employee Brian Mahaney, working in a company boat at the Hoan Bridge site, was able to safely pull the injured jumper from the water. According to the post, witnesses said that "less than a minute" passed between the first radio calls from other Thomas employees on the bridge to Mahaney's successful rescue.
