Young people are bypassing construction careers

Friday, 2 August 2024

The construction industry will need 129,239 more workers to meet demand over the next three years.

Over 60% of millennials and over half of young adults do not want careers in construction, but the industry is facing a big shortage of workers, experts say.

New research from the Construction and Infrastructure Workforce Development Council found that 63% of millennials, 51% of young adults (18 to 25 years) and 50% of older students felt they would dislike working in construction.

A career in civil infrastructure was even less popular with millennials and young adults, with 64% and 57% respectively saying they were not keen, while 44% of older students were not.

Engineering was viewed slightly more positively, but 61% of millennials, 50% of young adults, and 31% of older students still did not want a career in the field.

The research also showed 44% of millennials and 37% of young adults believed they were not strong enough for construction jobs, while 30% of students felt they were not good enough at maths or sciences.

Women are teaching the men a thing or two in the trades, and they're increasingly in demand, as the staff from Kevin Paul Painters in Nelson demonstrate.

The council’s chief executive, Philip Aldridge, said those views were misconceptions that would exacerbate skills shortages, and were a problem.

'New Zealand urgently needs more skilled professionals to build new homes, hospitals, and other vital infrastructure. Our modelling shows we’ll need 129,239 more workers to meet demand over the next three years.”

While the construction industry was experiencing a national slowdown, the long-term demand for skilled professionals remained critical, especially when the sector recovered, he said.

Recent data does not paint a rosy picture for the construction sector. Stats NZ latest consents data was out on Wednesday and it showed a 24% decline in new home consents over the year to June.

At the same time, new Centrix figures revealed a sharp increase in construction company liquidations over the calendar year, and that the sector accounted for 24% of all company liquidations over that time.

But the most recent National Construction Pipeline Report, from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment forecast that total building activity would return to pre-Covid levels over the next few years.

Mark Williams, who is the council’s general manager strategy and insights, said the value of the pipeline of work over the next five years was $250 billion.

The sky has not fallen on the construction industry, the Construction and Infrastructure Workforce Development Council’s Mark Williams says.

“That is down from a peak of $300b in December 2022, but it’s not too different to the pipeline value in mid 2021, and no-one would have said we were quiet then.

“It is just the timing of the work in the pipeline as the intent to build is there, but it is a matter of when projects get underway,” he said.

“Times are tough at the moment, but with some banks dropping interest rates a little recently, the feeling is that the economic environment is starting to turn.”

He said the sky had not fallen on the industry, and the current situation was not like the GFC, and there was potential for an upswing to come quite quickly, particularly given government infrastructure plans.

When that happened, the industry needed a pipeline of workers to come through, and that would require a drive to attract new talent, he said.

“Perceptions about the state of the industry might be making people wary about going into it, but our research suggests the biggest barrier are those misconceptions about what is required.

“People are also not aware of the wide range of jobs and career paths that are available in the industry. Only 20% of students were able to identify four different jobs, for example.”

Misconceptions about the construction industry and its requirements need to be addressed, Mark Williams says.

To address the problem, there needed to be a concerted effort to raise awareness about jobs and opportunities in the industry, and to bust the myths around it, Williams said.

“More bridges between schools, training providers and the trades need to be built, and levers, such as adding more roles into careers sites, and tapping into the Government’s plan to 50,000 people off the jobseekers’ benefit, need to be deployed.”

The industry had shed some of its workforce in the downturn, he said. But the question was did it have the workforce needed to carry out the pipeline of work when interest rates started to move.

“And looking at current trends, it does not. It does vary around the country, but there are big gaps in workforce supply, particularly in some occupations, that need to be addressed.”

The council’s research followed a warning from the Building & Construction Industry Training Organisation earlier this year.

Greg Durkin, the organisation’s acting director, said excessive focus on the construction sector downturn could lead to a damaging “tools down” on training new apprentices at a time when more, not less skilled workers were needed.