WHERE DID THE CRAFTSMAN GO?
The sting and pain related to the recent recession has strained all small businesses in Nevada so now, in the building industry, the unanswered question is – Where did the craftsman go? In Vegas the only good folks are already employed or have left, long ago, for greener pastures.
Some have changed careers and on new paths to future prosperity; trying to fulfill the needs and demands of raising families. They are no longer willing candidates for return to the construction business after all they have endured during the recession . Besides, the construction industry has always been fickle with the cycles of demand providing uncertainty and difficulty in providing steady incomes unless they were willing to travel. For those that traveled, the challenges of raising a family and participating in the kids soccer, school plays and celebrating accomplishments become impossible. The guilt of not being there quashes any desire to travel and becoming an absentee parent once again.
“…there is hope the freedom and satisfaction in working outdoors and the pride in admiring the work created by ones’s own hands will help to fill the need.”
Others in the building industry followed the work to places like: Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming and Canada. There is, and will be, a demand for good craftsman that far exceeds the supply. With the older Boomers beginning to retire and the younger generation interested in less physical careers, the construction industry is in jeopardy once the pent-up demand for construction is unleashed; inundating the market and creating a frenzy for good people.
With the, once named, Echelon, coming on line and future demand in the residential arena we will be in trouble. The construction sector will see a mass migration to that type of work. The good wages of the Unions on the Las Vegas Strip and the strong demand for the new home building market will lure those in the commercial sector away. What will become of the folks looking to build commercial properties, infrastructure, warehousing, strip malls and office complexes. I know there is a large unoccupied segment off the office market and retail; however, there is an obvious demand for large box buildings as expressed most recently by John Restrepo.
Not all youth will go to college or become IT technicians so there is hope the freedom and satisfaction in working outdoors and the pride in admiring the work created by ones’s own hands will help to fill the need.
Simple put; the Construction Industry is in trouble. Not right now, but soon!
