What is the trending topic being discussed in the construction industry? The word on the street is that there is a labor shortage. Executive Vice President Art Canales speaks out in an interview with David Brown at The Texas Standard, a radio show on NPR News, to give his opinion on what may be causing this issue. He notes that a large competitor for workers has been young people choosing college rather than a career in the construction industry right after high school. In May of 2018, the National Center for Education Statistics released that undergraduate enrollment is projected to increase by 3% (from 16.9 million to 17.4 million students) within the next few years.
While these statistics show the increase in college enrollment, Executive Vice President Art Canales believes there is a second contributing factor to the shortage in labor. "The issue is there's not really a clear path that I can find where it makes it easy for, say, workers from Mexico to come work over here," he says. Read more about his perspective on this topic in the Texas Standard.