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December 5th, 2019 | Published by NEW Construction AllianceA recent article from Construction Dive attempts to read the commercial construction tea leaves to figure out if 2020 will be a bearish or bullish year for the industry.
Experts make compelling arguments for each outcome based on the specific indicators they follow, and you read about those in the article.
One area of universal agreement is the role that increased production costs play in the long-term economic growth of our industry. In addition to higher material costs, Ken Simonson, chief economist for Associated General Contractors of America, specifically points to the construction industry’s workforce shortage as key obstacle to continued growth:
“The perennial lack of skilled labor will also play a big role in keeping construction costs high. About half of contractors responding to a recent AGC survey said the shortage of workers has caused them to raise prices and extend completion times."
In 2020, construction will continue to have an even greater challenge than other industries in finding workers.