The gist of it: with each passing decade there’s a growing shortage of construction laborers, resulting in large wait times for housing to be built. Some analysts wonder why the key demographic isn’t showing up.

I’ve seen a few articles in the past few years about young men supposedly checking out of society and work, I wonder if there is a connection between that and this article here because young men tend to be the prime demographic for working this job.

Companies need to pay their workers better.

  • jadero@lemmy.ca
    4·
    1 year ago

    I can’t speak to the general problem, but I can tell you why I left construction and manual labour more generally.

    A lot of the work is still as damaging to the body as it was in 1930.

    Toxic coworkers enabled and even encouraged by psychopathic supervisors.

    Safety is not only not built in to procedures, but actively mocked and even deliberately worked around, even when doing so slows things down.

    And all that for less than double minimum wage for experienced workers when it used to be easily triple minimum wage to start.

  • dumples@kbin.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    All of the workers shortages always come down to the same things. Money for the workers which have been sacrificed for the business to be as profitable as other businesses. I know that for something like construction this can only be done by skimping on quality or screwing over workers.

    • ShaggyBlarney@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Why not both!? I can maximize my profits by producing the skimpiest, leakiest, shittiest micro condos (charged out at the most luxurious of prices) and also shaft my overworked, overextended, undersupported workforce (preferably foriegn, marginalized and/or vulnerable)! /s

    • ArtyTester@artemis.camp
      1·
      1 year ago

      No that couldn’t be it! Why wouldn’t someone want to work at a job that tears your body up so hard that many die within a couple years if retiring?

  • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    1 year ago

    Each generation tells the next that college is needed even more these days, unless you want to be a trash collector or construction worker. That, along with the getting worse pay and body damaging labor, adds up fast.