USA TODAY: One of the hardest-hit industries in the recession, Michigan home builders are facing a much different problem these days as the housing market picks up: labor shortages.
An estimated 60,000 carpenters, remodelers and other skilled tradesmen and women in the state’s residential construction sector were put out of work when the real estate market collapsed and construction stalled…
Now that Michigan’s construction industry is on pace for a potential 37% increase this year in single-family home construction permits, builders are wishing they could rehire some of the labor they shed during the past six years. Yet despite a statewide unemployment rate of 8.4% in April, one in three members of the Home Builders Association of Michigan reported in a May survey having had difficulty finding enough skilled workers… (more)
