Construction’s February unemployment rate of 21.8% showed improvement over January’s 22.5% rate and was a substantial drop from February 2010’s 27.1%, but the industry’s jobless level remains the highest among U.S. industries, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Released on March 4, the BLS report shows that construction gained 33,000 jobs in February. However, BLS notes that the industry’s February pickup in jobs followed a January loss of 22,000 jobs, which “may have reflected severe winter weather.” Jobs increased in February in all construction segments, except non-residential building, which had a loss of 2,000 jobs. Specialty trade
Heading into the summer bargaining season, the goodwill created between New York City contractors and construction unions during landmark labor negotiations in 2009 appears to be spent. Labor bosses are crying foul over an employer campaign aimed at reducing the gap between union and open-shop rates. Photo: For ENR By Michael Falco New York building firms’ rep Coletti (left) and union head LaBarbera in 2009 after inking pact to cut costs. Relations now are strained. Rather than working exclusively with union trades representatives, the Building Trades Employers’ Association, which represents about 1,700 contractors citywide, is reaching out directly to rank-and-file
Generations are defined by the core values they carry for a lifetime, according to Chuck Underwood, founder and principal of Generational Imperative Inc., a Miamisburg, Ohio-based consultancy. The youngest people now flowing into the workforce are first-wave Millennials, aged 18 to 29 years old. Some demographers set the start of this generation slightly earlier, but there is broad agreement on who the Millennials are, what makes them tick and why managers and colleagues should care. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides
RODRIGUES A 2009 graduate with a B.A. in building construction management and now working for SIKON Construction, Conrado Rodrigues believes his generation holds the key to a more productive industry. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides Ellina Yin Jonathan Gaul Jonatan Schumacher “While the older generation tends to react to change negatively, the younger generation is more open to changing the way the process is done and using new technology to increase the efficacy of the building process,” says
YIN Ellina Yin likes to quote Horace Mann, who said, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for mankind.” Yin says the deep motivation she drew from that quotation led her to construction waste-water treatment as her path to victory. “I’ve always had an interest in water and preserving the oceans,” Yin says. “I can’t imagine myself in any other field.” Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides Jonathan Gaul Jonatan Schumacher The 25-year-old is
SCHUMACHER Jonatan Schumacher epitomizes a generation that has grown up with technology, and he is implementing this long-ingrained technical familiarity to keep his firm on the cutting edge and pull his older co-workers into the future. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides Ellina Yin Jonathan Gaul “He has a very unique set of skills,” says Robert K. Otani, vice president of Thornton Tomasetti and Schumacher’s manager. “This complex skill set includes geometry, engineering and architecture—that’s a rare
GAUL Jonathan Gaul, an industrial painter and union member since age 18, considered leaving the union after earning a B.S. degree in computer science in 2004. But Frank MacKinnon, his 66-year-old predecessor, changed Gaul’s course by appointing him training manager; last year, MacKinnon handpicked him over more senior candidates to run the 1,000-member local, which spans four maritime provinces. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides Ellina Yin Jonatan Schumacher “I wanted someone who would do a better
BENAVIDES “I choose to be an engineer to help the country produce clean electricity and reduce its carbon imprint,” says McAndrew-Benavides, a manager of industry infrastructure at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group in Washington, D.C., that promotes nuclear energy. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Ellina Yin Jonathan Gaul Jonatan Schumacher Although the 31-year-old is on the leading edge of the Millennial generation, she shares many traits with her younger cohorts, including constant career revamping and a
The Millennial generation will compose the majority of the construction workforce by 2018, according to the U.S. Census. They are entering in a torrent that can either infuse energy into firms or drown them. Each company will choose what happens by how it adapts to new styles of recruitment, management and retention. + Image Photo: Mark Johann 29-year-old mechanical engineer with Leland Saylor Associates in San Francisco says, conditions are tough for the construction industry but, “balancing the knowledge of the older generation with the tech know-how of the younger,” is the path to security. Related Links: Who Is a
Construction's unemployment rate rose in January, to 22.5% from December's 20.7%, partly reflecting the industry's usual winter slowdown, but was improved from January 2010's 24.7% rate. Related Links: Read the Employment Report The Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest monthly employment snapshot, released on Feb. 4, also shows that construction lost 32,000 jobs in January, on a seasonally adjusted basis. About two-thirds of those losses came in the nonresidential specialty trade contractors segment. BLS said another possible factor contributing to construction's January job losses was the severe weather in parts of the U.S. last month. One encouraging sign in the latest
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