Today, during labor shortages and rising costs in the construction industry, it’s essential to utilize helpful construction software and stay ahead of the curve. PlanHub is an excellent solution, allowing general contractors to easily find quality subcontractors during the labor shortage and beyond. While PlanHub does the labor searching, check out some of the reasons costs are rising as the availability of labor decreases.
Reasons Behind the Labor Shortage
- Challenging Work: People are not as likely to pursue construction as a career because the work is viewed as hard and dangerous. The decrease in interest leads to a decrease in skilled, trained workers.
- Recent Recession: One reason for the shortage of labor is the recession in the previous decade. With inconsistent and unreliable jobs, the seasoned laborers were unable to maintain employment or have retired. A byproduct of the recession is an emphasis on higher education, which reduced some vocational programs in high school, directly decreasing people ready to enter the workforce with a trade skill.
- Population Problems: In the United States, more skilled laborers are retiring while the population growth slows, producing lower numbers of people with trade skills.
Reasons Behind Rising Costs
- Dwindling Labor Force: There is a clear relationship between the decreased available labor and rising cost to pay for subcontractors. With less available labor, subcontractors are demanding higher wages.
- Material Costs: While there is a shortage in labor, demands for new housing and other construction are still increasing. This leads to increased competition and more materials needed, causing suppliers to up their costs.
- Extra Expenses: Supply and demand is a common theme. Not only are basic labor wages increasing to meet the demand of the decreasing supply of subcontractors, but extra incentives are almost necessary. Many contractors are attracting qualified workers with bonuses, overtime, retention rewards, and extra incentives to work. These offers are helpful in finding good, quality subcontractors, but they also lead to higher expenses.
How Can PlanHub Help?
PlanHub is a dedicated tool for both subcontractors and general contractors. PlanHub works hard to link general contractors and subcontractors across the country while helping with project management and the bidding process. With the continued labor shortage and rising costs, a helpful hand is needed. PlanHub is an accessible cloud-based application software to help you with the hassle of finding quality subcontractors.
PlanHub is free to use for general contractors to post projects and subcontractors to view and download projects for a small cost.More and more subcontractors are using PlanHub to find jobs daily, meaning an increase in available quality labor! Cut down on your workload and build your quality labor base with PlanHub. To learn more about our software and its benefits, contact us today!
