Is There a Demographic Craft Labor Cliff That Will Affect Project Performance?

While the current extended recession may temporarily mask the problem, the construction industry faces a major challenge in supplying the quantity and quality of craft workforce needed to execute industry projects. The problem of craft labor availability and training has been a widely studied problem in construction research, with previous work funded by the Construction Industry Institute (CII), the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), and the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) among others. However, the impact of craft shortages on broader aspects of the construction project, such as productivity, design, and safety has been less studied. As construction firms compete for a pool of shrinking skilled craft resources, this will have impacts that ripple through the construction process. This research will focus on answering the question, “Is there a demographic craft labor cliff that will affect project performance?”