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If you want an impactful job that offers a change of pace, you will love construction. It is one of the few industries where you can see the impact of your work on the outside world! Lucky for you, there are many job opportunities opening up in this growing field. See some of the top reasons that people choose a career in construction.

1. See the fruits of your labor. 

It has been over a year since the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed, unleashing an unprecedented $864 billion in federal funding to improve the country’s transportation, water, energy, and broadband systems. This comes on top of hundreds of billions of dollars for related climate and industrial investments in the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act. And with this funding has come the enormous potential to support up to 15 million new jobs over the next decade, according to the most ambitious estimates. Many state and local entities eligible to receive this funding—think transportation departments, water utilities, and more—are scrambling to secure new pots of money and get workers ready for all the projects to come.

The problem with this gold rush mentality is that federal, state, and local leaders often overlook a fundamental problem facing the country: They cannot even hold onto current infrastructure workers, let alone find more of them to carry out this pressing work.

In most states, companies are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance so that if a worker is injured on the job, medical bills, partial salary, rehabilitation costs and training for a new trade, if necessary, will be paid regardless of whether the injured person has health insurance. However, is the worker is classified as an independent contractor or contract worker, then he or she is not covered by this benefit.

And, according to the Workers Defense Project, the southern U.S. is the region most likely to have construction workers laboring as independent contractors.

Gregory’s analysis of the pandemic recession reveals that workers who were unlikely to be reemployed within a year after leaving the labor force after a job loss were retired, had children 12 years or younger at home, were female, and/or had less education. The workers most likely to be reemployed who had not left the labor force, however, tended not to have children 12 years and younger, were female, were highly educated, and had left their old job voluntarily. While eating and drinking places gained 1.3 million jobs during the first seven months of 2021, the industry is still 1 million jobs short from reaching its pre-pandemic level of 12.3 million, according to the National Restaurant Association. In August, however, the industry lost over 40,000 jobs for the first time this year due to an uptick in coronavirus cases, keeping the labor shortage top of mind. Without enough workers, many restaurants have reduced operating hours and rely on overburdened staff who face stronger diner demand. Many operators continue to pin the labor crisis on higher unemployment benefits offered during the pandemic, but a closer look at several labor reports released in the past few weeks show the situation is much more complicated. 

During the period of a recession, many workers will exit the labor force. This phenomenon has been observed often. But what workers are most likely to exit the labor force during recessions? And what do they do after exiting the workforce?

In her essay, “Labor force exiters around recessions: who are they?” (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, first quarter 2023), author Victoria Gregory analyzes labor force data from the Great Recession and the recession of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In doing so, she examines the differences in labor force dynamics between these recessions by considering patterns in labor force entry and exit. Gregory uses these patterns of job separators to determine whether each recession set of “exiters” would likely be reemployed 1 year later. To better understand the differences in exit patterns, she looked at the workers’ chance of being reemployed and their composition, such as gender, education, and age.

Of the 20 professions least likely to have health insurance, 11 of them are in the construction industry, according to MarketWatch. The average uninsured rate for fulltime workers in the U.S. is 12%, but the percentage of certain categories of construction workers without health insurance is much higher, including roofers (50.5%); drywall hangers, finishers and ceiling tile installers (49.5%); plasterers and stucco masons (49.1%); fence installers (45.7%); carpet, tile and floor installers (45.2%); painters and paperhangers (43.1%); construction trade helpers (42.8%); installation, maintenance and repair helpers (40.5%); cement masons, concrete finishers and terrazzo workers (38.7%); brick masons, block masons, stonemasons and reinforced iron and rebar workers (38.6%); and construction laborers (37.5%) At least some of the workers who reported not having health insurance coverage could be classified as independent contractors, which means that they are operating as a business and not entitle to benefits from another employer. Dive Insight: In most states, companies are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance so that if a worker is injured on the job, medical bills, partial salary, rehabilitation costs and training for a new trade, if necessary, will be paid regardless of whether the injured person has health insurance. However, is the worker is classified as an independent contractor or contract worker, then he or she is not covered by this benefit. And, according to the Workers Defense Project, the southern U.S. is the region most likely to have construction workers laboring as independent contractors. As part of its study, the Workers Defense Project reported that only 5% of the 1,435 workers it interviewed in six southern states said workers’ compensation would cover the cost of their work injuries, and 57% said they earned less than $15 an hour. In Houston, specifically, 40% of construction workers interviewed had no health insurance, retirement savings, paid vacations or sick leave. More than 30% said they did not have breaks during the day and that their employer did not provide drinking water on the jobsite. The U.S. Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service have requirements for independent contractors, and employers that misclassify employees as contract labor could face penalties from both agencies. Generally, independent contractors offer their services to the public. In addition, in an independent contract relationship, the employer has a say in the end product but not how the independent contractor achieves it, for example, by dictating hours spent on the job.

The Administration has already taken steps to secure cyberspace and our digital ecosystem, including the National Security Strategy, Executive Order 14028 (Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity), National Security Memorandum 5 (Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems), M-22-09 (Moving the U.S. Government Toward Zero-Trust Cybersecurity Principles), and National Security Memorandum 10 (Promoting United States Leadership in Quantum Computing While Mitigating Risks to Vulnerable Cryptographic Systems). Expanding on these efforts, the Strategy recognizes that cyberspace does not exist for its own end but as a tool to pursue our highest aspirations.

APPROACH

David Gerard (author of: Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain), Cryptocurrency Is No Fix for Russia’s Sanctions Woes, Foreign Policy, March 3, 2022, 2:58 PM.

Money laundering for criminals and other bad actors is not a new idea. At its core, it is the process of turning dirty money you can’t use into clean money you can use. Cryptocurrency has sometimes been a useful tool for this, but it stumbles at the last hurdle: getting actual money out at the other end, and not just another crypto. The volume of the crypto economy is just too small; there aren’t enough actual dollars. When headlines speak of millions or billions of dollars in crypto-tokens, these often aren’t dollars in any realizable sense. They’re abstract value in the way that, say, a private-equity unicorn company like Theranos was once “worth” $10 billion. Turning this mark-to-market value into money you can spend is difficult even if you do it all entirely aboveboard.

Masarah Paquet-Clouston (GoSecure), Bernhard Haslhofer (Australian Institute of Technology) and Benoıˆt Dupont (Universite´ de Montre´al), Ransomware payments in the Bitcoin ecosystem, Journal of Cybersecurity, 2019, 1–11, doi: 10.1093/cybsec/tyz003.

Many argue that ransomware authors have proved to be highly innovative in the past years. Since 2013 and the first introduction of the Cryptolocker ransomware, new variants have been designed and distributed by ambitious cybercriminals, building on the success of previous versions or fixing previous errors [3, 15, 18]. Yet, focusing on the speed at which ransomware authors modify their malware and the technologies used may lead to overestimate the severity of the threat. As the current hype would have it, ransomware authors would make large amounts of money—up to millions of dollars—with this successful online black mailing activity [6, 21, 22]. As it is often the case, the reality is not that simple. In 2015, Kharaz, Robertson, Balzarotti et al. [15] published a long-term study on ransomware attacks in which they analyzed 1359 samples from 15 ransomware families. Even though ransomware has evolved, these authors found that the number of families with sophisticated destructive capabilities remains quite small. They also found that malware authors mostly used superficial techniques to encrypt or delete a victim’s files. Flaws were, moreover, found in the code, making the attack easily defeated. Similarly, Gazet [4] conducted a comparative analysis of 15 ransomware and discovered that the code used was often basic and built on high-level languages. Looking at the victims and the ransoms asked, the author concluded that ransomware attackers followed a low-cost/low-risk business model: they did not aim at targeted extortion, but relied instead on small attacks for small ransoms, which could be compensated by mass propagation.

Societies and nations are examples of large-scale, complex social-physical systems. Thus, societal resilience can be defined as the ability of a nation, population, or society to anticipate and prepare for major stressors or calamities and then to absorb, adapt to, recover from, and restore normal functions in the wake of such events when they occur. A nation’s dependence on its Critical Infrastructure systems, and the resilience of those systems, are therefore major components of national and societal resilience.

There are a variety of events that could deal crippling blows to a nation’s Grid, Critical Infrastructure, and social fabric. The types of catastrophes under consideration here are “very bad day” scenarios that might result from severe GMDs induced by solar CMEs, HEMP attacks, cyber attacks, etc.5

Robert Osei-Kyei, Vivian Tam, Mingxue Ma, and Fidelis Mashiri, “Critical review of the threats affecting the building of critical infrastructure resilience.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. June 15, 2021. The authors are professors at the School of Engineering, Western Sydney University. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102316

In these contemporary times, critical infrastructures (CIs) are of great importance because they are physically and logically essential to a nation. Importantly, CIs are necessary to support public welfare, economic growth and government day-to-day functions. Examples of CIs include supply of energy (oil, gas, and electricity), information and communication technology (including telecommunications and navigation), nuclear industry, water supply, healthcare (hospital, medicines, and vaccines), provision of financial services (banks and insurance), civil administration (government functions and facilities), and function of transportation systems (road transport, railway transport, and air traffic). CIs are always known to be highly interconnected and complex. This means that the operation of one CI is dependent on the operation of other CIs. For instance, steady supply of electricity is fundamental to the function of water and telecommunication systems. In this regard, any disruption of a single CI could lead to cascading effects in other CIs, and further trigger regional or national impacts. The complicated interdependencies of CIs network brings difficulties in managing potential crisis. Considering the complicated interdependencies of CIs network, in recent years it has become very necessary for many governments to build resilient CI systems which will ensure the continuing function of a nation's economy. Generally, CI resilience refers to the ability of CIs to absorb, resist, adapt and recover from the effects caused by a disruptive event. In fact, protecting CIs is good, however, developing resilient CIs system is considered prudent because it allows a country to adapt to change and withstand unexpected situations or pandemics. More importantly, resilient CIs system enable a country to develop urban community resilience which ensures that communities can absorb disturbance while maintaining their functions and structure. However, different forms of threats including natural disasters, cyber threats, technical damages, human errors, and malicious attacks have the possibility to disrupt governments' efforts to develop resilient CIs system or network. Essentially, some threats/hazards would not only cause a disruption to a government's efforts to develop CI resilience but can lead to a total breakdown of a country's CIs network, thus making the national economy and society unfunctional.

Associated General Contractors of America, xx-xx-xxxx, "AGC Alert: Keep Construction Essential ," https://advocacy.agc.org/keep_construction_essential

CONSTRUCTION IS ESSENTIAL: Keeping the men and women of the construction industry mobilized throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has proven necessary to meeting the needs of our communities and economy. Construction workers have built, maintained, and repaired critical infrastructure, health facilities, and data centers, among other projects. Moreover, they have responded to immediate recovery needs before and after hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters.

https://constructiondigital.com/construction-projects/why-health-insurance-is-so-crucial-in-construction

For construction workers, health insurance is a must. Construction workers have a staggering 75 percent chance of suffering a disabling injury on the job, according to the Centre to Protect Workers’ Rights. The most common injuries among construction workers are strains and sprains, with workers also at risk of trips, slips and falls, being struck by an object, electrocution, and being trapped in small spaces or by heavy objects. With so many potential on the job hazards, arranging health insurance is a wise move for anyone working in the construction industry. Here are five reasons why: Health Insurance Pays For Good Treatment Construction workers face the threat of a variety of disabling injuries. Add to that the fact that construction workers are often paid on a by-project basis and it's easy to see the financial impact of having to take time off work for medical treatment. Health insurance pays for good quality treatment, letting the care provider know that treatment costs are covered and opening up a wider range of treatment options. Health Insurance Covers a Range of Treatment Options Construction workers face a range of hazards, some of them complex or capable of causing serious injuries. Men and women out in the field could find themselves dealing with anything from a long-term sprain to a broken bone to the after effects of handling dangerous substances. Having health insurance means a wider range of treatment options will be available than if they remain uninsured, which is particularly important given the range of potential hazards. Health Insurance Offers Financial Protection As "Five Reasons It's Vital to Have Health Insurance" points out, insurance protects policy holders from large bills that can ruin their finances. Between their fluctuating income and the dangers they face on the job, having a buffer between themselves and a huge health care bill is an absolute must for construction workers. Health Insurance Covers Ongoing Treatment and Medication Construction workers may find themselves long term disabled as a result of an on the job injury. Sprains and strains can lead to chronic pain and recurring problems which will require long-term treatment. Some construction workers may find they can continue working if their injury and pain is well managed by treatment and health insurance is a way to cover that treatment and prevent problems caused by leaving an injury untreated in the long-term. Health Insurance Covers Preventative Care Lastly, in order to do their jobs, construction workers need to take care of their health in order to stay as well and strong as possible. Health insurance covers preventative care as well as primary care, including exams and screening for potential problems. Finding problems early often means quicker and less invasive treatment, which means less time missed from work and less risk of the condition getting out of control further on down the road. Construction is a vital part of the American economy, providing both employment and infrastructure around the country. For construction workers, the occupation comes with its own hazards. Good health insurance provides support if an injury happens and can also help to prevent injuries and provide long term treatment, which means better health and less financial worry for workers in the construction industry.

Health is critically linked to job satisfaction, says a survey conducted by Quest Diagnostics in March 2022. The study, “2022 Health at Work,” has revealed that 66% of employees are thinking of changing jobs next year—or have recently completed a job change. In addition, 77% of respondents state that preventive care was difficult during the pandemic.

With that in mind, 73% of human resources executives surveyed are concerned about employees’ chronic conditions and 90% believe they will need to improve benefit packages and increase wages to compete for the best workers and retain current employees during the Great Resignation.

Peoplekeep, Inc., xx-xx-xxxx, "Guide," No Publication, https://www.peoplekeep.com/health-benefits/construction

Construction spending is projected to exceed 1.45 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023 — up from the 1.29 trillion dollar value in 2018. Although the continued uptick is a good thing, many construction companies find it difficult to recruit skilled workers to meet the steady demand. This challenge is even greater for small- to medium-size business owners as they find themselves competing with large construction companies with deep pockets and traditional group health care packages. And with traditional group insurance comes participation requirements, administration complexity, and high costs that just don’t make sense for many of these smaller businesses. As a result, many construction companies are looking for other ways to reimburse their workers for health care. This is where a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) can help your small construction business and here’s why. We understand that no construction project is the same and so small construction firms operate differently than most small businesses. That’s why we know flexibility is key to managing your cash flow successfully. An HRA is a good fit for a small construction company like yours as it offers the ability to offer tax-free money to its workers for health care expenses. Your small business can decide in advance the amount of money to contribute, with the flexibility of adjusting the amount based on budget constraints throughout the year. It’s great for your workers too as they have the flexibility to use the allowance to purchase the health insurance and services that best fit their needs. There are different types of HRA plans, each tailored for different types of businesses. You can learn what type of HRA may be best for your construction business here. Hire and keep top workers With construction workers spanning from baby boomers to millennials, Construction workers with a crane in the background offering a health benefit that works for all types of employees is crucial – especially when it comes to recruitment and retention. An HRA is appealing for all types of construction workers as it gives them the flexibility to choose the health insurance and eligible expenses that best suit them. The flexibility and cost savings inherent in these tax-free plans make HRAs a great recruiting tool as workers recognize its value and fairness, regardless of their age or situation. Simplify administrative processes. Running a small construction business can be administratively demanding. With massive amounts of records, regulations, and timelines to stay on top of it’s no surprise that work-life balance is especially tricky for small firms. Fortunately, adding an HRA through PeopleKeep doesn’t add more to a small firm’s administration burden. Both you and your employees can administer the HRA in just minutes a month through PeopleKeep’s easy-to-use, cloud-based software.

The Dodge Construction Network has produced a forecast for the U.S. construction sector for 2023, in which it signals a slowdown across many typologies. Overall, the dollar value of construction starts will be $1.08 trillion, which, though unchanged from 2022, represents a 3% dip when adjusted for inflation.

Dodge’s analysis suggests the stagnation will not be felt evenly across the industry, with declines in residential and commercial activity offset by growths in manufacturing and infrastructure.

Our everyday lives rely on infrastructure – we expect to be able to boil the kettle, jump online and have water come out of the tap when we want it.  But these systems are all vulnerable not just to natural hazards, but also to other issues such as contamination of water supply, maintenance issues or cyber attack. The consequences of infrastructure failure can be significant - disruption to households and businesses and may result in evacuations, business closures, economic loss and clean-up costs, potential health hazards and environmental impacts.

Important infrastructure, also known as lifeline utilities, is mainly provided and managed by commercial companies and some are managed by local city or district councils or the Government. Each infrastructure provider is required to undertake asset management planning to reduce the possibility of failure – and to ensure that services are re-established as soon as possible if they do fail.

Construction firms are struggling to find workers to such a degree that it’s threatening the success of federal investment in infrastructure and manufacturing projects, the Associated General Contractors of America said Wednesday.

Citing its annual construction workforce survey of nearly 1,300 employers commissioned with tech provider Autodesk, AGC said 93% of construction firms have open positions, and 91% are having trouble filling them, particularly among the craft workforce that performs the bulk of onsite construction work.

Birmingham, xx-xx-xxxx, "Improve Health Benefits in the Construction Industry to Improve Retention," Birmingham Group, https://thebirmgroup.com/improve-health-benefits-in-the-construction-industry-to-improve-retention/

Employee retention in the construction industry is central to ongoing success, capturing market share and ongoing growth.  Boosting employee retention has become that much more challenging since the start of the pandemic and the rise of lucrative tech jobs.  If your construction business is struggling to hire and retain employees, you should know youare not alone.  Put your faith in a construction industry recruiter, boost your health benefits, provide additional forms of positive reinforcement and your employee retention rate will gradually increase.

Construction activity in the U.S. is getting a boost from new plants for electric vehicles, warehouses for e-commerce and manufacturers deciding to do more work in the U.S. after global supply chains broke down during the pandemic. Construction spending on manufacturing last year was the highest on record, according to the Census Bureau. Increased federal spending on public-works projects, defense and production of electric-vehicle batteries and semiconductor chips is expected to keep construction activity elevated into next year, contractors said. Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc. and other construction-equipment manufacturers expect higher machinery sales in the U.S. this year. “We feel good about nonresidential construction in North America,” Caterpillar Chief Executive Jim Umpleby told investors in March at a construction-equipment trade show in Las Vegas. “That business has been improving and will continue to improve.” The backlog of nonresidential projects in the U.S. under contract but not yet started was 9.2 months in February, more than a month longer than the previous February, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., a trade group based in Washington, D.C. For factories, energy projects and other industrial jobs, the backlog was 10.4 months in February, an increase of two months from January and 3.8 months from February 2022. While the rising backlog indicates continuing demand for construction, some analysts warn the backlog signals contractors’ increasing difficulties completing jobs and a reluctance to start new ones. Caddell Construction Co. said it recently completed distribution warehouses near Dallas and Charleston, S.C., with about 2.5 million square feet of space in each building. The contractor based in Montgomery, Ala., has opted not to pursue contracts for some larger buildings because of concerns about the availability of workers and materials needed for the projects, said Ricky Byrd, senior vice president for commercial construction.   “There’s not enough talent in the market to do all the jobs that are out there,” Mr. Byrd said. “We say ‘no’ to projects more than we say ‘yes’ these days. It’s part of managing our risk.” About one-fifth of construction workers are older than 55 years old and are often the most skilled workers or supervisors on a job site, the builders-and-contractors group said. As older, higher-skilled workers retire or leave for other jobs, many contractors haven’t been able to quickly replace them with younger workers with the same skill levels.