Contractors Report Major Difficulty Filling Craft Positions as Hiring Plans Strengthen

By Ken Simonson, AGC Data DIGest

Nearly four out of five contractors (79%) are having trouble filling hourly craft professional positions, while 52% report difficulty filling salaried positions, based on 1358 responses to a survey and analysis AGC released on Thursday. Of 21 crafts, respondents reported the most difficulty finding carpenters (reported by 73% of the firms that employ them now), sheet metal installers (65%), concrete workers (63%) and electricians (60%). But even the most available category of hourly workers, traffic control personnel, was reported hard to find by more than one-quarter (26%) of respondents. Among 10 types of salaried professions, the scarcest were project managers and supervisors (55% reported difficulty), followed by estimating professionals (43%) and engineers (34%). To attract and maintain workers, firms say they are increasing base pay rates (56% of firms for hourly workers, 48% for salaried workers), providing incentives or bonuses (23% and 29%, respectively), increasing contributions to benefit plans or improving employee benefits (23% and 23%), and paying more overtime (165 and 4%).