Construction firms grapple with labor shortage

After emergency personnel rescued a worker suspended 11 stories above the ground at a Palm Avenue high-rise development — the second such mishap in the span of a month — David Simmons saw reason to be comforted about the safety of Sarasota construction sites.

In both incidents, the scaffolding on a high-rise building malfunctioned. But Simmons, a local construction safety consultant, noted that the workers remained suspended — and were rescued without serious injury — because they followed proper procedures.

“Their training worked — because those workers were tied off, they were using the equipment as they were supposed to be using it, and it saved lives,” Simmons said.

Still, the rescues at the Vue Sarasota Bay and 624 Palm developments in June and July fueled an ongoing conversation among city officials about how to manage urban construction sites. Residents have expressed concern about other incidents in which debris has fallen onto neighboring properties.

Even before the scaffolding failures generated headlines, the city was responding to those citizen concerns. In June, the City Commission asked staff to research possible new safety regulations for construction sites. The city attorney’s office is currently reviewing the subject.

“It’s destructive and it’s dangerous,” City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch said following a presentation from residents regarding falling debris. “I thank you for bringing that to our attention before somebody gets hurt or something serious happens.”

To some extent, Simmons believes, it’s not necessarily the rate of accidents that’s increasing. There are a lot more downtown projects today than there were eight years ago. As a result, there are more accidents.

But there are more factors at play shaping downtown construction, including the workforce available to fill the jobs the local building boom has created.

That’s a source of concern for construction companies, which see a shortage of qualified workers in the region. That’s not a problem unique to Sarasota, but it’s a problem nonetheless.

“The economic crisis we had in 2006, 2007, 2008 was cataclysmic to the construction industry,” said Kast Construction President and CEO Mike Neal, whose company is working on Vue Sarasota Bay. “Many of our skilled workers left the state.”

Inside jobs

A definitive connection between the labor shortage and downtown construction is hard to establish.

Neal said he didn’t see the lack of workers as a safety issue, but something preventing companies from finishing projects on time. In January, Vue developer The Kolter Group delayed the completion date several months because of a labor shortage.

Kolter Urban President Bob Vail said the company would institute overtime for its workers, bring in additional subcontractors and start working six days a week.

But Simmons said the vacuum of workers created in the wake of the recession means employers have to provide additional training for their employees — not just on-the-job, but also in classrooms. That level of preparation will help reduce the number of smaller-scale accidents on construction sites, he said.

“The hiring practice of the employers is extremely important,” Simmons said. “By being diligent, you can help reduce some of the issues.”

“The hiring practice of the employers is extremely important.” — David Simmons 

Neal said Kast tries not to take on more work than it can handle.

“We either have to do one of two things,” Neal said. “Choose not to pursue any work — because we don’t think we can deliver the work — or we have to try to creatively address these issues by going outside of our geographic area to find other resources.”

Rather than luring more workers to the area, the amount of construction going on downtown raises the demand for talented people in the field, creating competition between contractors.

“It doesn’t solve the labor problem,” Neal said. “It creates a cost problem.”

Inducing labor

Although construction companies can bring in subcontractors from outside the region, the industry is focused on filling the void of workers locally, too.

Mary Dougherty, executive director of the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange, said that means teaching students that a career in the trades is a viable choice.

“We can’t just conjure people,” Dougherty said. “We have to take a long-term approach.”

She pointed to the organization’s Construction Rodeo, held in May to educate Sarasota and Manatee students about the industry and provide connections to employers. More than 300 students and 35 businesses attended. In July, the Gulf Coast Builder's Exchange announced several of those businesses had hired or were reviewing candidates who emerged at the Construction Rodeo.

Dougherty said it’s important to start reaching children as early as middle school to let them know the advantages of a career in the field, which typically includes forgoing a four-year university. It might not be the most expedient way to get new workers, but it’s designed to create a more stable base of labor in the years to come.

And local technical schools are trying to get older students prepared as quickly as possible to enter the workforce. The United Way and CareerEdge Funders Collaborative are two local organizations working to help people interested in a construction job.

The groups have helped launch express courses in the trades to get people certified to work as quickly as three months. Mireya Eavey, Sarasota area president of United Way Suncoast, said the interest from prospective employees has been high. And construction companies are providing guidance so the courses give students the practical skills they need to fill the jobs available in the area.

“The employers have realized that they need to be part of the solution,” Eavey said.

That might be a good sign for the future. For now, though, Simmons said people may have to get used to seeing some construction accidents — because it’s hard to pull off projects without error.“Can we improve? Absolutely, we can always improve,” Simmons said. “But that’s what we have right now. Sarasota’s growing tremendously, so you’re going to see an uptick in terms of accidents and near misses.”