Construction Labor Shortages Persist, Reports Annual Jobs Analysis

L.B. Hall Fireproofing Announces CEO, Launches New Logo

PCA Supports EPA’s Removal of Emissions Limit Ozone Rule

Spackle by Dave Coverly

People News

Spire Consulting Named Diverse Business of the Year

Saint-Gobain Honored with Three Stevie Awards

KEEN Utility Pledges $1 Million to Tradeswomen

Lawrence Group and KWK Architects Forge Partnership

Nichiha USA Donates Fiber Cement Cladding to Project Home

Spire Consulting Named Diverse Business of the Year

Spire Consulting Group of Austin, Texas, was named the 2023 “Diverse Business of the Year” award winner by the Associated General Contractors of America. The association also awarded Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Awards, sponsored by WTW, to Hensel Phelps; Gilbane Building Co.; Battaglia Associates Inc.; and Bermudez Longo Díaz Massó LLC.

“The intent of these awards is to identify the construction and related businesses that are leading the way in making our industry more inclusive and more diverse,” said Lester C. Snyder, the association’s 2023 president and executive vice president of Brightline West in Las Vegas. “We want to recognize these firms’ outstanding progress. As important, we want to inspire the rest of the industry to learn from these firms and build on their successes.”

Spire Consulting Group is a Hispanic-owned, full-service, fully integrated construction consulting firm that adds value across the entire construction project life-cycle. Spire began based on the premise of assisting clients with navigating complex construction projects by applying lessons learned to prevent cost and schedule overruns. Spire’s proactive (construction advisory, project controls and project management) service lines and forensic (dispute resolution) service line constantly share information with each other to optimize our learnings from the beginning of construction projects to the end.

Additionally, Snyder also announced four other winners of the association’s sixth annual Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Awards. Hensel Phelps, based in Colorado, won the Association’s Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Grand Award, which goes to the firm who scores the highest number of points out of any of the Diversity & Inclusion Excellence categories. Gilbane Building Co., located in Providence, R.I., won the Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Award for a large contractor. San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Bermudez Longo Díaz Massó LLC won the Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Award for a mid-sized contractor. And the Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Award for a small contractor went to Battaglia Associates Inc. in New Castle, Dela.

The five awards were presented during the association’s annual convention in Las Vegas. A panel of judges, representing all aspects of construction, evaluated the submissions based on three criteria: corporate commitment to diversity and inclusion, workforce diversity and inclusion initiatives, and subcontractor/supply chain diversity and inclusion initiatives, Snyder noted.

Saint-Gobain Honored with Three Stevie Awards

Saint-Gobain North America announced May 30 that it has been recognized with three Stevie Awards in the 21st annual American Business Awards. Specifically, the company was honored with two silver Stevies in the categories of Achievement in Corporate Social Responsibility and Achievement in Environment, Social and Governance, and a bronze Stevie in the category of Achievement in Human Resources.

The American Business Awards are the the country's premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the USA are eligible to submit nominations—public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, large and small.

“To be recognized by the American Business Awards is an incredible honor that highlights the fantastic work our team at Saint-Gobain North America is doing every single day to make a difference for our employees and the communities we serve,” said Magda Dexter, Senior Vice President for Human Resources and Communications at Saint-Gobain North America. “Congratulations to our philanthropy, ESG and human resource teams for your Stevie awards and a sincere thank you for your outstanding work to live up to our purpose of Making the World a Better Home.”

The awards presented to Saint-Gobain North America include:

• Silver Stevie Award for Achievement in Corporate Social Responsibility: Saint-Gobain North America was recognized for its Sustaining Futures, Raising Communities philanthropy program, which focused on creating and transforming educational spaces in Georgia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Through the program, the company donated $250,000 of its building products and materials solutions to 12 schools, transforming educational spaces and ensuring classrooms are well-equipped, comfortable and sustainable environments.
• Silver Stevie Award for Achievement in Environment, Social and Governance: Saint-Gobain North America has been recognized for its commitment to sustainability and its work to reduce waste and increase the circularity of raw materials in its production processes. Over the last year, the company has undertaken several ambitious projects to advance its goal to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint by 2050, including equipment upgrades to make its Montreal gypsum plant the first zero-carbon manufacturing site for wallboard in North America.
• Bronze Stevie Award for Achievement in Human Resources: Saint-Gobain North America has been recognized for its work to reinvigorate its Employee Value Proposition, a strategic initiative to better position the company as a place for personal and professional growth. This was accomplished through an extensive discovery process and resulted in the implementation of a Trust, Empowerment and Collaboration Recognition Program and several new benefits, such as offering hybrid and flexible work schedules, childcare resources and a robust parental leave policy.

This recognition from the American Business Awards is the latest Saint-Gobain North America has received in recent months for its commitment to Making the World a Better Home.

KEEN Utility Pledges $1 Million to Tradeswomen

KEEN Utility has announced the six recipients of its 2023 She Builds Grant Program. Launched by KEEN Utility in 2021, the She Builds Grant Program was created to help advance the empowerment of more women entering the skilled trades. Between 2021 and 2026, the program has pledged $1 million in product and financial support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and Canada that are leading the way to provide trade skills education and support for the next generation of tradeswomen.

This year, six She Builds grants will be awarded to Black Women Build-Baltimore, British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Trades Discovery for Women, Girl’s Garage, Grid Alternative’s Women in Solar Program, Oregon Tradeswomen and Vermont Works for Women. These grants will help provide hundreds of thousands of hours in quality trade skills education, expansion of workplace inclusivity training and KEEN Utility’s women-specific safety footwear. Recipients were selected by KEEN Utility and its fans.

“Women are a vital part of the skilled trades,” said Kevin Oberle, senior director of global insights and engagement at KEEN Utility. “Through the She Builds Grant Program, we are able to better support a number of forward-thinking organizations dedicated to the empowerment of women in the trades. A career in the trades can be incredibly rewarding and, as a company, KEEN Utility is proud to help build a future where women are provided more support and offered more inclusivity in industries critical to our way of life.”

The She Builds Grant Program is funded through the KEEN Effect program, a give-back initiative whose larger mission includes making the outside and the trades accessible to all. The KEEN Effect program was founded in 2005, and the brand has committed millions of dollars toward social and environmental justice since its inception.

Lawrence Group and KWK Architects Forge Partnership

St. Louis-based architecture firms Lawrence Group and KWK Architects announced the merger of the two firms.

KWK, a nationally recognized higher education expert, will merge with Lawrence Group to create a singular powerhouse in the higher education market, with more than 140 combined employees to serve colleges and universities nationwide. In addition, because Lawrence Group provides services complementary to KWK.

“We are very excited to have KWK join Lawrence Group,” shared Tim Rowbottom, Lawrence Group Principal & COO. “Our cultural alignment and coupled proficiency will be of tremendous benefit for our clients, giving us the ability to provide them with even greater expertise in the higher education market.”

As part of the merger, KWK Architects will relocate to Lawrence Group’s headquarters in downtown St. Louis. KWK will retain its brand identity as well as all its current employees.

“Merging with Lawrence Group creates a pathway for intentional growth, collectively allowing us to continue to provide our clients with a high level of service,” said Paul Wuennenberg, Principal at KWK. “At the same time, it allows us to develop future thought leaders in the higher education space.”

Nichiha USA Donates Fiber Cement Cladding to Project Home

Nichiha USA has donated more than 2,500 square feet of its elegant Miraia architectural wall panels to students taking part in a special project at the University of Kansas. Known as Studio 804, the effort is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 operation that builds sustainable and inventive building solutions.

Studio 804 is a student-run capstone option for graduate architecture students at the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design. Each year, participants undertake a housing project from concept to creation. The program affords aspiring architects an opportunity to not only design their vision, but to personally facilitate its build. In previous years, the program undertook the construction of homeless shelters and even projects for the university itself. Their 2023 focus is called “432 Indiana House,” a chic, local home that focuses on sustainable living.

To support the effort, Nichiha USA donated one of its AWP products: the high-gloss Miraia specified in a resonant Onyx black color. The bold visual choice will make a standout addition to the home’s clean lines and minimal aesthetic. Not only is the design an exciting look, but it is also inspiring to the students constructing the home.

“I think Nichiha has raised the bar of quality, and we aim to meet that quality ourselves and the execution of it,” said Dan Rockhill, principal of the Architecture firm Rockhill and Associates and JL Constant Distinguished Professor of Architecture. “It’s a beautiful product that has been thought through to a great extent. They are able to anticipate all the conditions that we run into; how to deal with openings, doors, windows, how to turn corners, how to manage expansion and contraction. All of those have been thought about through their engineering.”

Like past Studio 804 projects, the home approaches sustainable living from all angles. Its location sits near ample green space, including the Kansas River. The vibrant culture of Lawrence, Kansas, is accessible by nearby bus routes and bike loops, lessening the need for a personal vehicle. All of this is in an effort for the project to become Studio 804’s 17th consecutive project to achieve LEED Platinum status.

“I contacted Nichiha last fall to ask if they’d be interested in partnering with us, and they were very excited and really responsive,” said Lydia Juengling, a fifth-year architecture student at the University of Kansas. “I’m really excited about the aesthetic of the panel. The glossy black is incredibly sleek and modern. With our black standing seam roof, the house mimics the look of a polished gem. Miraia Onyx is perfect for that.”

“At Nichiha, we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary of being in business, and we like to say that architects often have that ‘a-ha’ moment when designing their project, when their vision is crystallized and they know what materials they need to realize it,” said Jason Monday, vice president of sales and marketing. “With its ability to mimic many coveted looks and its durability as a rainscreen system, Nichiha AWP is the optimal choice for cladding for this student project. We’re glad the product gave these aspiring architects their ‘a-ha’ moment.”

Now in the final stages of building, 432 Indiana House is poised to be completed in May 2023.

Construction Labor Shortages Persist, Reports Annual Jobs Analysis

The construction industry continues to face a skilled labor shortage, with worker scarcity worsening since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Marcum LLP’s annual analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

The Marcum JOLTS Analysis is produced by Marcum’s National Construction Services group.

Slow Going Post-Pandemic

The construction industry has slowly begun to recover jobs lost in the early months of 2020. “In the first two months of the pandemic, construction lost about 1.1 million jobs, a decline equivalent to 14.2 percent of the industry’s workforce,” said Dr. Anirban Basu, Marcum’s chief construction economist and author of the report. “As of January 2023, the most recently available data as of this writing, there are roughly 7.9 million people on construction payrolls. That’s about 3.6 percent more employees than the industry had at the start of the pandemic.”

But the rate of recovery has put the industry significantly behind the pre-pandemic pace of employment growth. “That’s approximately 400,000 fewer construction employees than there would have been, based on the 2015 to 2020 pace of hiring, had the pandemic not occurred,” Basu said.

The residential sector, buoyed by a boom in new home construction, has gained employees at a faster pace than the nonresidential sector over the past two years. “Residential construction accounted for 39 percent of all construction workers at the start of the pandemic,” Basu said. “As of January 2023, that share had risen to 41.4 percent.”

Nonresidential construction has recovered jobs at a slower pace due to behavioral changes, such as the increased prevalence of remote work and e-commerce. “The nonresidential industry has fared less well, and that’s reflected in the segment’s workforce, which is currently 0.5 percent smaller than at the start of the pandemic,” Basu said.

Open Positions Going Unfilled

The pace of hiring would occur at a more rapid pace if not for ongoing construction labor shortages. “The construction industry averaged 390,500 open, unfilled positions in 2022, by far the highest recorded level over the 21-year period for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has data,” Basu said. “As of January 2023, one in 20 (5 percent) of construction jobs were unfilled.”

While the construction industry has grappled with labor shortages since long before the pandemic, worker scarcity now affects a majority of economic segments. “In February 2020, there were 7.1 million open, unfilled jobs across the entire economy, close to the all-time high set in November 2019,” Basu said. “By March 2022, job openings had spiked to a new record of 11.9 millions.”

The surplus of open positions has empowered workers to switch jobs, or even industries, in search of higher pay. “The construction industry quit rate, or the share of construction workers who quit their jobs, averaged 2.5 percent during 2021 and 2022,” Basu said. “Over the previous decade, the construction industry quit rate averaged just 1.8 percent.”

Basu warns that given the predictions of recession toward the end of 2023 and the elevated price of construction materials, the industry must take steps to buoy its workforce. “The gloomy economic outlook for the second half of 2023 and beyond and elevated borrowing costs could have dire effects on construction activity,” he said. “The upshot is the construction industry must take drastic steps to ensure that the workforce is sufficiently sized to meet the demand for labor.”

“Warning signs and historical trends of downturn are out there and have been for a little while,” said Joseph Natarelli, Marcum’s national construction leader. “The construction industry, always the first to feel the pinch and last to be relieved of it, saw some minor downturns this June. Jobs are plenty, unemployment is slow still, but nonresidential spending hasn’t grown over the past year and that includes the increases we saw in governmental and infrastructure spending. For now, we are advising our clients to take a skeptical and informed eye to the future.”

To download the full Marcum construction jobs analysis and for more information, visit marcumllp.com.

L.B. Hall Fireproofing Announces CEO, Launches New Logo

L.B. Hall Fireproofing, a minority- and women-owned fireproofing company located in Crystal Lake, Ill., announced that Estefania Roa will become the company’s new CEO. In 2022, Roa became president and owner. She joined the company in 1990 and has been a dedicated partner since.

Founded in 1990, L.B. Hall has decades of experience improving the fireproofing and insulation of homes, hospitals, schools, libraries, hotels, warehouses, churches, office buildings and many other facilities. L.B. Hall offers services like intumescent fireproofing, cementitious fireproofing and insulation. It has completed more than 6,940 projects serving over 500 clients in the Midwest region.

“I receive this CEO position with great humility and enthusiasm to continue learning,” Roa said. “I’m excited to make this company a gateway for those who seek more, who are willing to give everything with me and create new opportunities that will elevate both the company and our employees. For me, this position comes with a great responsibility to improve my ethics and my way of leading. This role also gives me a chance to prove to myself that in the face of adversity, I will step up to the challenge! I know I am a voice for many women and an inspiration for the next generations.”

Along with Roa becoming CEO, it was also time to create subtle but intentional changes to the company’s logo design to showcase its values. The new logo presents a beautiful phoenix, an immortal bird associated with Greek mythology that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by rising from the ashes of its predecessor. The bird is flocked with orange, yellow, red and pink feathers. This new color palette shows L.B. Hall’s pride in being a women-owned business.

The logo also introduced a more “fluid” design.

“The fluid design signifies our understanding that any situation we encounter takes flexibility, adaptability and continuous learning to be the best that we can be,” Roa said. “This design shines in our logo through the addition of ‘movement,’ which represents the ever-changing industry and our adaptability.”

PCA Supports EPA’s Removal of Emissions Limit Ozone Rule

Portland Cement Association appreciates that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has removed what it considered a technically infeasible proposed emissions limit from the final Good Neighbor Federal Implementation Plan. The rule would have required cement kilns to meet emissions standards for nitrogen oxides more stringent than standards for new kilns and would have forced cement plants to curtail production or shut down.

EPA relied on flawed data and, for the first time, included cement manufacturers among other industrial industries that would be subject to the proposed rule, despite the fact that many cement plants already utilize emissions control technology.

“The rule would have been regulatory overkill for America’s cement manufacturers, as they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars implementing state-of-the-art emission technology controls to comply with stringent NOx and other air emissions requirements,” said Sean O’Neill, PCA’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. “Furthermore, had it been enforced, the proposal would have been a contradictory move by the Administration, as a reduction in cement supply would inevitably slow progress of construction projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

PCA will evaluate the ramifications of the final rule and continue working with the federal government to meet its obligations to protect air quality.