Good Wages, Good Jobs, but Shortage of Workers in Seattle

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a story last week about the workforce shortage in the Pacific North West. People are just not getting into the apprenticeship programs. And now the average age of construction workers is around 40.

The crazy thing is that these jobs pay between $25 and $35 per hour for apprentices. No college education just earning while you are learning. The wages for the journeymen in that market are between $43 and $57 per hour.

There are movements being made in the state to stop the trend but it seems as though the path is tough. The risks of failure are large. In addition to risking not being able to construct "green" solutions, we are going see the cost of maintaining our homes and communities rise as well.

I am familiar with many of the solutions to get new people into the trades that have not been exposed before. These solutions include holding outreach events that are accessible and establishing local hiring requirements in on projects. I have found that Project Labor Agreements are the most effective way to do this.

You can read the article Post-Intelligencer here.

Update to IBEW-NECA Story

The IBEW posted the complete version on their website. Check it out here: San Diego Daily Transcript "Training for a Better Tomorrow".