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TagsBY REBECCA SHEEHAN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Since the ball dropped in Times Square and Congress passed a $9.7 billion Hurricane Sandy aid package on Friday, New Jersey residents now have a brighter future when it comes to rebuilding all that was destroyed by the devastation of the untimely superstorm.
Although the aid has been approved, now there is just one slight problem: where are all the construction workers?
NJ101.5 reported that since the economic downturn, thousands of laid off construction workers retired, left the field or moved to other states to find work — leaving some states, like New Jersey, with a lack of construction workers.
“Construction has been in a slump for almost six years, construction employment has declined by 28% over that time,” stated Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), which is the leading association for the construction industry. “There will be shortages and slowdowns in getting some projects completed and I think it will affect the rebuilding process there, absolutely. It will be hard to find workers with a specific set of skills at a particular time,” Simonson said to 1015.com.
Due to the endless amounts of storm damage up and down the Jersey Shore, rebuilding will be a long, hard and exhausting task — and especially with a shortage of men and women certified to sling hammer and nails. The state as a whole is going to have to rely on the volunteers and willing individuals who are offering a helping hand to the cause.
“New Jersey will see a lot of workers coming back to help with the rebuilding process, but with Congress’ failure to pass spending relief, that may be a slower process than people might be expecting,” said Simonson. “I think we will see a strong upturn in homebuilding, home family construction and private construction, but it will be a challenge for contractors to find experienced workers to do all those projects.”
So if you are a licensed construction worker in the state of New Jersey, please step up and help us rebuild the shore to be bigger and better than it ever was.
