Dive Brief:

• Immigrant construction workers have something in common with American-born construction workers – both groups saw a lot of people leave when the housing market crashed, and there are not enough of them left.
• "The long recession has really deterred workers from coming back and contractors from growing because they got whacked so hard last time," TRI Pointe Homes CEO Doug Bauer. That is rapidly going to stifle growth, observers say.
• The only proposal so far has been a guest-worker visa program that would start at 6,600 per year and eventually grow to 15,000, which one building-company leader said is not enough to cover ine state's needs, much less the entire nation's.

Dive Insight:

This is an excellent article that looks at the issue of immigrant and often illegal labor from the point of view of trying to get houses built and understanding what the reality is on the ground. It focuses on home-building, but the problem is there for commercial contractors, too.