Dive Brief:

• Larimer County, Colorado, where Fort Collins is, lost 3,300 construction jobs between 2006 and 2011, when the bleeding stopped.
• Now, the recovery is underway, but finding trade subcontractors to carry it forward has become a major headache, and some companies just don't try for more work because it would be nearly impossible to find workers to do it.
• There is an element of wariness in it all, too, because the pain of laying off workers is fresh enough that some subcontractors are not ready to believe it will not happen to them again if they hire now.

Dive Insight:

In some cases, like with Dan Ormesher's Independent Plumbing Solutions, companies lost so much money just staying alive during the recession that they cannot afford to the trucks and tools they would have to buy even if they could hire workers.