The local construction labor force is working overtime to make the Twin Cities' current development boom a reality.
But aging demographics and the workforce's depleted ranks have everyone in the business, from state officials to small subcontractors, worried about where the next generation of workers will be coming from.
One strategy to deal with the current and future labor-supply shortfalls is now ramping up. It's an effort by an industry and labor coalition to introduce inner-city high school students to the potentially lucrative benefits of learning a construction trade.
Called the Construction Careers Pathway Initiative, it's being coordinated by the Construction Careers Foundation, a nonprofit led by construction business owners, management firms, trade associations and labor leaders who have dedicated themselves to recruiting young men and women of diverse ethnic backgrounds into the business.
That's a daunting task in Minnesota, the initiative's leaders said. The labor shortage, which is affecting many areas of the state economy, is especially acute for the construction industry.
The current construction workforce is notably homogeneous, overwhelmingly dominated by white, male baby boomers who are quickly approaching retirement age. Many of them came from farming backgrounds and entered construction in the 1970s and 1980s when farming consolidated and the rural economy struggled.
Compounding the shortage was the devastating toll the Great Recession took on the construction industry. With few projects being built from 2006 until around 2012, an entire cohort of younger workers were diverted onto other career paths, leaving even fewer potential replacements for the baby boomers.
"The new workforce will have to come from elsewhere, and it's probably not going to look much like the current one," said Construction Careers Foundation Executive Director Pat Wagner, who is coordinating the recruitment initiative. "We have to reach out to city kids of all ethnicities, both boys and girls, who may never have had any exposure at all to building trades to let them know this is a very viable career option."