Demand for construction workers is booming, but hiring qualified salaried or hourly workers is tough in Maine and elsewhere in the country, prompting a construction industry group to label the labor shortage a crisis.
Maine is following national trends, with about 81 percent of the construction firms that answered a recent survey reporting trouble filling hourly craft positions. Another 44 percent in Maine said finding salaried personnel is difficult.
The survey was released Wednesday by the Associated General Contractors of America, a Virginia-based trade group, and Autodesk, a California software company that helped put together the survey. Some 2,500 construction firms responded to the survey, which also included detailed data on 34 states.
Since only 16 companies responded in Maine, the state wasn’t among the data breakouts, which required a minimum of 20 respondents. AGC provided the Maine data separately to the Bangor Daily News.
To read the rest of “Good luck getting construction workers in Maine, or anywhere for that matter,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Lori Valigra, please follow this link to the BDN online.
