US home building is surging, but job growth isn't

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ALEX VEIGA

(AP) In this April 24, 2013 photo, Richard Vap, owner of South Valley Drywall, poses for a photo at a...
Full Image

The resurgent U.S. housing market has sent builders calling again for Richard Vap, who owns a drywall installation company. Vap would love to help - if he could hire enough qualified people.

"There is a shortage of manpower," says Vap, owner of South Valley Drywall in Littleton, Colo. "We're probably only hiring about 75 or 80 percent of what we actually need."

U.S. builders and the subcontractors they depend on are struggling to hire fast enough to meet rising demand for new homes. Builders would be starting work on more homes - and contributing more to the economy - if they could fill more job openings.

In the meantime, workers in the right locations with the right skills are commanding higher pay.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130509/DA661EA80.html

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In this April 24, 2013 photo, Richard Vap, owner of South Valley Drywall, poses for a photo at a home construction site with one of his crews working in the background in Lakewood, Colo. The resurgent U.S. housing market has sent builders calling again for Vap, but Vap says he is having trouble hiring enough qualified people. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

[bucolic_frolic]

1. What happened to all the foreclosures?

So .... 5 years of immigration and college graduates are all seeking housing now?

How are they going to pay for it?

Oh. Default on student loans or borrow more.

Hey, that's a plan.

[jtuck004]

8. They are still there, but the banks, having been given mostly free money, and a free pass from the

administration for their ongoing criminal enterprise had the FHA buy up the largest portion of the underwater and non-paying mortgages over the past few years,(without even a discount, so the banks got even more - read some of Senator Elizabeth Warren's and other's writing, it's an eye-opener) getting it to a level where they can mange the numbers more effectively so as to keep values from dropping further. (Aided, of course, by the largest number of purchases being done by "investors" who actually want to be landlords - foreclosures are actually higher than they were a year ago, here) and keep it from affecting the market so badly. The majority of homeowners now who default can count on staying for a year to two years before being evicted. They even have a name for them - "strategic defaulters" - like Mi$$ RobMe and his "strategic taxpaying", but different. In his case he screws other people over and finds ways to hold onto his gains. In the homeowners case they were often screwed over by banks taking advantage of their position of trust, and are trying to find a way to survive.

[NewEngland4Obama]

12. The investors have bought up most of the foreclosures,,

[jtuck004]

13. Yup, and thus providing upward pressure on prices that would otherwise be lower.

Discussed at this link http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014470484 as well, home ownership down to 1995 levels.

[DJ13]

2. What happened to all the former contruction workers?

Theres no way the industry has absorbed all of them yet.

Maybe these companies arent offering wages sufficient to lure them back?

[tofuandbeer]

4. Agreed

[DeSwiss]

3. Load of CRAP. n/t

[xtraxritical]

5. He wants to hire H1b cheap labor or day labor.

[Populist_Prole]

6. Bingo

Just the latest of the coordinated drumbeat of the "jobs americans won't do" BS.

If you can't get ( enough ) people, you're not paying enough. All these condescending pigs loved to use the supply vs demand "economics 101" canard when they thought it would lower wages. Now they go yapping to our corporatist government to circumvent the same rules when labor supplies are tight.

To hell with that Karl rove lookalike bastard.

[ErikJ]

7. LOTS of total old home renovation projects going on in my area and its ALL Latino or

Russian workers but mostly Latinos. What can ya do? Cheapest bidder crew wins the job I guess. And 90% of the time its the Latino crews.

[dotymed]

9. The scoop from a retired carpenter who finally joined the Union.

Most of my friends and acquaintances are in the residential construction business.
The contractor hires unskilled immigrants to do the work for extremely low wages ($12 hrly. for foreman).
He then claims that these workers, whose tools (even hammers) he provides are sub-contractors and usually deducts workman's comp. insurance (at an inflated rate) from their hourly pay. This insurance is only used in extreme cases. Most of the workers enjoy pot on and off the job, so if they are injured they don't report it because the insurance would not pay. The (smaller, often millionaires on paper) contractors spend their day in a new (tax write-off) air-conditioned truck and make sure the employees stay busy. The foreman/translator is told how to construct each home by the, usually there, contractor.
The contractor is paid a weekly draw as benchmarks (floor in, walls up, roof decked..) are met. A small portion of this is paid to his crew.. err.. subcontractors. He pockets the rest and lives like a king.
I had many opportunities to do this, even in my present health, I could sit in an air-conditioned truck and holler.. I would not do this to anyone.
Come Friday, the "sub-contractors" usually spend hours after work, chasing down their minute paychecks to raise their families on.
It is almost surviving except when the weather doesn't cooperate.
Of course, the contractor lives like a king...and uses people as animals. The "Sub-contractors get 1099'ed at tax time and pays for all of the taxes that rightfully should be paid for by the contractor.
Thank God for Unions (mine just folded after absorbing the Unions from 3 different states.
With "our" new commerce secretary, Obama's anti-Union patron (top 1 %) it will not improve.

[Fumesucker]

15. I know a contractor who specializes in custom decks, he does exactly this

And yeah, the labor has to go to his office to get paid which is often thirty or forty miles from the jobsite they've been working on all week. He's around all week keeping a regular eye on them but disappears on Friday.

The fucker is so crooked he has to screw on his pants in the morning, smooth talking, glad hand backslapping type of good old boy.

[popsdenver]

10. Dotymed nails it

Dotymed nails it on the head.

The only thing missing is the fact that a lot (read:most) of the workers I see on construction sites are un-documented workers.

Framers, roofers, concrete workers, landscapers, dry wall installers, etc etc etc.

When the building market crashed, most un-documented workers had to go back to Mexico because they couldn't find work here.

The contractors/building corporations were really enjoying that incredibly ultra cheap labor, and they now want the documented workers to work for the same prices/conditions/wages that they were used to paying for the undocumented workers.

Even in the skilled trades, (electricians, plumbers, HVAC) I have personally witnessed the same thing.....many of the workers are un-licensed, don't even have an apprentice card, much less a green card........All the building inspectors just look the other way.

[DotGone]

11. More of this "Not enough workers" bullshit

They're leaving off the relevant info which is workers with 10 years experience and their own tools willing to work for $7.50/hr on a 1099.

[olddots]

14. In Southern California they're building homes

if you're looking for something from 6000 square feet to 10.000 square feet in gated communities .( and who isn't ? )