Author: Jason M. Bailey / Source: New York Times
Tim Gruber for The New York Times
Plastic excavators, bulldozers and cranes fueled by imagination have long captivated toddlers. Now, the construction industry is trying to attract teenagers with realistic computer simulators of those same heavy machines, hoping to build a younger work force.
With the retirement of baby boomers in full swing, the construction industry is grappling with its biggest challenge: refilling its pool of employees. But it faces significant resistance among younger workers. Many of them consider the field unstable after six years of double-digit unemployment in the wake of the Great Recession. Or after constantly being told by parents, teachers and politicians that a college education is paramount, they find the work undesirable.
“That generation that would bring their kids to work and have them sit on their knee while they are operating a road grader, that generation is gone,” said Ben Eakes, the asset manager for Eutaw Construction Company in Madison, Miss.
“We’ve gone through the grandfathers and the fathers,” he added, “and now we are at the generation of the sons, and a lot of the sons aren’t wanting to do this type of work.”
And there is a need for fresh blood. Projects are surging, and unemployment in the construction industry was 5.1 percent last year, its lowest rate since at least 2000. Rapidly losing the most experienced workers while demand is high could delay projects and hurt the industry.
To attract replacements who grew up playing Call of Duty, some construction companies, unions and schools have turned to simulators that replicate jobs done by heavy equipment, like pushing dirt or lifting steel. Whether it will persuade enough digital natives to embrace hard hats is unclear, but the industry agrees that a revitalization is necessary.
More than three-quarters of construction firms in the United States said they were having a hard time filling some or all of their positions, according to a survey by the Associated General Contractors of America that was released in January. Thirty percent said worker shortages were the biggest concern for their firm, by far the most pressing of 16 issues, ranging from growth in federal regulations to rising material costs.
Midsize construction companies are most at risk because of the loss of fresh hands in the work force, said Michelle Meisels, who leads the engineering and construction practice at Deloitte Consulting. “If they can’t attract the talent and the boomers are retiring,” she said, “it’s going to be difficult to win work or even deliver work that they have in their backlog.”
Eutaw Construction bought its first simulator, an excavator by Caterpillar, late last year and is working to develop its recruiting program by forming partnerships with community colleges and nonprofit organizations.
Crane Industry Services, which focuses on training and certification with companies across the United States, wants to teach students who may otherwise be baffled when they drive past a job site populated with machines, said Debbie Dickinson, its chief executive. It recently obtained a portable simulator by CM Labs, a software company in Montreal.
“They know they move big things, but how it all works is a mystery,” Ms. Dickinson said. “Until they sit down in…
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