Dive summary:
- The complaint is being heard across the country that builders cannot find the workers they need to do all the business they say they could have.
- One statistic boils down their problem in creating a housing supply to meet demand: before the bottom fell out of housing in 2006, the home building industry employed 3.4 million people, but then 1.4 million jobs went away, and so did many of the workers who held them.
- The industry is back to about 2.1 million as demand grows, but it could be higher if former builders were not now in other trades and professions that they have little reason to leave.
From the article:
And many found new work – in commercial building or in booming and sometimes higher-paying industries like mining and natural gas drilling – and aren’t eager to come back. ...