Dive Brief:

• Kelley Construction in Louisville, Ky., could do more work if it had more people, its owner says, but qualified construction workers are getting hard to come by.
• Joe Kelley has a Baton Rouge, La., office, and oil and gas industry demand has made wages there twice what he pays in Louisville.
• The upward pressure on wages from current or expected labor shortages means clients with projects to be built should before prices go up.

Dive Insight:

Making no bones about how the economic pendulum has swung from buyers of construction services to sellers with the fading of the recession, Joe Kelley says any contractor who "is not moving his margins north needs to have his head examined.” Kelley's company will pay personnel companies $200,000 this year in an effort to find the best people for its teams.