(CNN) – Eddie Martin can’t build as many houses as he wants in Texas because his contractors don’t have enough workers, especially skilled workers like electricians, carpenters, and plumbers.
This labor shortage, due to an aging workforce and increasing numbers of retirees, means that it is more crucial than ever for the United States to allow more legal immigrants into the country to bolster the ranks of the construction industry. said Martin, CEO of Tilson Customs. Home Builders in Austin.
“We’re losing business. There’s no doubt about it,” said Martin, whose wife and family founded the company in 1932. “Many of those skilled workers are aging. There’s no one to replace them.”
Tilson Custom Home Builders take longer to complete homes because their contractors don’t have enough workers. (Photo: Courtesy of Eddie Martin).
Martin works with 300 contractors to build homes for teachers, police officers, firefighters and other middle-class people, with 500 units currently in the pipeline. But now he has to tell potential clients that the job will probably take 14 months instead of nine, causing some of them to walk away. If contractors could increase their workforce by a third, Tilson says they could build another 175 homes a year.
Martin, along with many others in the residential and commercial construction industry, has lobbied Congress for years to create new work visa programs or expand existing programs, such as the H-2B program, so they can hire more immigrants. Some want to expedite work authorizations for asylum seekers so they can start training sooner rather than waiting 180 days as required by federal law.
The need is growing as demand for housing increases and federal infrastructure funds are pumped into communities across the country, at a time when fewer young Americans are choosing construction as a career. President Joe Biden has recently made several initiatives to reduce housing costs and increase supply, including a campaign stop in Nevada on Tuesday.
But toxic politics around the border are currently blocking passage of new immigration legislation in Congress, quashing any hope of allowing more documented immigrants to build homes, apartment buildings, commercial developments and infrastructure projects.
“Until the situation on the southern border is addressed, our issues will likely not be addressed,” said Jim Young, senior congressional director for the American General Contractors Association. Commercial and Multifamily Construction.
Still, the industry isn’t giving up on petitioning Congress. The contractor group is running its first digital ads in several congressional districts this year about the need for more legal migrant workers for the construction industry, as well as additional funding for technical education and training.
One of the major concerns is labor shortage
Home Market Index. According to a January survey for NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing, high costs and unavailability of labor were among the top challenges for homebuilders last year and are expected to be top priorities again this year. About 73% of builders said this was a problem in 2023 and about the same proportion thought they would be a problem this year. Another top concern for home builders in 2024 is high interest rates and potential buyers expecting prices to fall.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 413,000 construction job openings in January, close to a record 454,000 openings in November. But the industry needs to hire more than 700,000 new workers a year because many are leaving the field, mainly due to retirements, said Robert Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders.
According to NAHB’s Census analysis, one in five construction workers in 2021 were age 55 or older.
Eddie Martin, CEO of Tilson Custom Home Builders, has long advocated increasing the number of legal immigrants allowed to work in construction. (Photo: Courtesy of Eddie Martin).
The share of immigrants in construction has recently begun to recover, after years of fewer immigrants joining the industry due to Covid-19 restrictions on travel and border crossings and the Trump administration’s clampdown on immigration. About a quarter of construction workers were foreign-born in 2022, an all-time high, according to the NAHB, citing U.S. Census data.
But more immigrant workers are needed because American-born workers aren’t filling the void. Homebuilder and general contractor trade groups are working with schools, universities and federal Job Corps programs to develop the next generation of American construction workers. But progress has been slow. Many kids are pressured by parents and teachers, who don’t see construction as a good career option, to go to college, the industry says.
“We surveyed young adults and asked them about the industries they wanted to pursue a career in,” Dietz said. “Construction, in particular, is not going very well.”
Tracks No a job Legally Limited
Midlands Contracting is having trouble finding workers to fill 10 vacancies. (Photo: Courtesy of Midlands Contracting, Inc.).
The main visa that construction companies can use to bring in immigrant labor is the H-2B visa, which is for temporary or seasonal workers. But many in the industry say the H-2B program is not working well because of a strict cap on the number of visas available and strong competition, as well as the year-round operations of many construction companies. For fiscal year 2024, approximately 131,000 H-2B visas are available. While they support expanding the number of H-2B visas issued, construction trade groups have also pushed for new visas for industries that require temporary workers with some skills, but not a college degree. The number of visas issued will vary slightly depending on the demand from construction companies.
Although bills to create such visas have been introduced in Congress, such as Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Lloyd Smucker’s proposal last year to establish the H-2C program did not go very far.
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Expanding the visa system or speeding up work authorizations would allow the industry to hire more asylum seekers crossing the US-Mexico border, many of whom now work illegally in construction, landscaping and other fields, Michael said. Clemens, George Professor of Economics at Mason University.
Meanwhile, demand for more housing, commercial development and infrastructure projects is expected to increase. Overall, the NAHB estimates that the nation needs 1.5 million additional housing units, while other estimates are even higher. And aided by federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and the bipartisan Infrastructure Jobs and Investment Act, non-residential development will continue to flourish.
“We have companies telling us they’re not bidding on projects — infrastructure projects, economic development projects, whatever — because they don’t have enough people to do the work.” Associated General. Contractors of America.
Shane Wagner’s Midlands Contracting is one of those companies. Despite constant advertising on websites and social media, he had to quit because he wanted to hire 10 additional employees to build sewer, water and storm sewer projects in Nebraska, Kansas and other parts of the Midwest. , as well as a recruitment platform, in addition to offering referral bonuses.
Despite his and his colleagues’ efforts to increase student interest in construction, he has to compete with manufacturers and meat packers for local workers. And a few years ago, he applied to get workers through the H-2B program, which cost him about $10,000, but was not selected.
“The reality is that the biggest solution for us is to hire immigrants,” says Wagner, vice president of Midlands, founded in 1977 by his father, Dallas. People to do that.. “We’d love to do all this work as quickly as possible, but we can’t do it until we get more legal immigration.”
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