Masonry Magazine July 2007 Page. 29
MASONRY COMPUTER ESTIMATING
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CIRCLE 163 ON READER SERVICE CARD
July 2007
Masonry 27
Amy Vasquez, executive director for the Masonry Industry Training Association (MITA) in Southern California, agreed. "There is a lack of qualified labor. Right now, the average age of a journeyman is 52 years old and the average age of an apprentice is 28," she said. "We're trying to replace the old with the new."
Employee Shortage
AS THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY GROWS, all of the trades, including masonry, are eyeing the same limited pool of potential hires.
"We have had trouble hiring. In the Washington [state] area, it's been a problem for a while," said Monty Fairweather, president of Fairweather Masonry Company Inc., a 100-employee firm in Bellevue, Wash., that starts masons out at union scale. "We are competing with the other trades."
The recent economic slowdown has helped slightly since more people are now looking for work, said Scott Griffin, president of Griffin Masonry Inc., a Charlotte, N.C.-based company with 70 crews and more than 400 employees. "That's not going to be a long-term solution," Griffin pointed out. "I think finding qualified workers is one of our biggest challenges as a company and as an industry."
In fact, the need for workers has sometimes forced Griffin to hire employees at a higher-than-average starting pay rate. As the construction industry grows, all of the trades, including masonry, are eyeing the same limited pool of potential hires.
"There are situations where we have paid people more than they were valued at, but we hoped for long-term employment that would make that investment reap a benefit two to three years down the road," he said. Sometimes the investment paid off, other times it didn't. "I can think of situations that support either side," he said.
But not everyone is seeing a widespread labor shortage. "In a general sense, I don't know of any areas that have a shortage," said John J. Flynn, president of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) in Washington, D.C. "In most cases, you can recruit young people in the areas if there are jobs available."
When BAC learns of geographic areas having trouble finding qualified workers, it immediately sets up training in those areas to help masonry companies find and hire employees, Flynn said.
"We need to recruit and train a lot of people with older people retiring, but it's not an immediate shortage," he said.
Lynn Nash, executive vice president for the North Carolina Masonry Contractors Association in Hickory, N.C., said the num
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