Dive Brief:

• A survey finds that in Florida, and particularly in Orlando, a predicted rise in construction wages is happening as contractors try to find the people they need.
• Associated General Contractors' Central Florida chapter surveyed 800 businesses and found that 42% are paying higher wages to the trades, and 36% are paying more to get or keep professionals.
• The pinch is tightest for project managers and for masons, pipe-fitters and welders — the last two being trades in which construction is competing with the oil industry.

Dive Insight:

As Mark Wylie, Central Florida chapter president of Associated Builders and Contractors, noted, contractors simply do not have the pool of workers to draw from that was in the area just as the economy tanked and layoffs began. Many of those people are plying their crafts elsewhere or are not in the trade they had when their jobs fell out from under them.